Annual Carnival of Speed Track and Field Meet

by ALICIA WALTER

    On April 1st, Mac-Hi held its annual Carnival of Speed meet. No, it wasn’t a joke. Our Pioneers strived to make new personal records, and score higher than the other 26 teams from Oregon and Washington that were in attendance. While we only compete at Districts with Ontario, LaGrande, and Baker, it’s great to have some competition that you don’t always see.

    As always, teams are praying for good weather, and like every other year, the temperature rose to the high 70’s. It was a beautiful day that allowed the athletes to perform well, and compete at their best.  

    Athletes want to strive to make the top eight in each event. Making the top eight means you receive points. Getting ten points in a season means you automatically make varsity, and we had quite of few athletes either making that mark on the second meet of the season, or getting really close to it.  

    We’ve had multiple athletes from our Track and Field program who placed in their events. Michael Odman placed second in triple jump, with a distance of 38-01.50 ft. Cole Skramstad placed third in Javelin with a throw of 148-10 ft. Landon Warne placed 1st in Discus with a throw of 136-7 ft. Donald Clark placed 3rd in discus with a throw of 123-06 ft. Landon Warne placed 6th in Shot put with a throw of 39-07 ft. Austin Leonetti placed in the 300 meter hurdles with a time of 48.95 seconds. Those were all the boys who placed in the top 8 in a meet with 26 attending schools.

    For the girls, Delaney Karrels placed 8th in High Jump with a height of 4.02 ft. Amber wells placed 1st in Javelin, with a throw of 109-08 ft. Alicia Walter (yours truly), placed 5th in Javelin with a throw of 96 ft. Mindy Harmon, placed 7th in Javelin with a throw of 94-10 ft. Amber Wells placed 5th in Shot Put with a throw of 31-01.25 ft. The girls 4x400 relay girls placed 8th with a time of 4:58.96 seconds. The girls who ran it were Cynthia Flores, Bianca Garcia, Brianna Hernandez, and Celeste Moreno. Candelaria Maguregui placed 6th in the 300 meter hurdles with a time of 54.96 seconds. She also placed 6th in the 100 meter hurdles with a time of 19.05 seconds.

    Mac-Hi has a strong athletic department for all sports, not just Track and Field. We lost a lot of senior boys last year, so if you are a guy and are interested in Track, you should come out next year. More girls are welcome too. It’s a great place to make new friends, and push yourself to the limits.  

Interview with Caande

by KAREN STEELE

     Candelaria Maguregui is a foreign exchange student. Becky Hammill, one of our writers, interviewed her in the beginning of the year, and we took this opprotunity to catch up with her towards the end of first semester. In this first installment of our video interviews, Caande touches on sprinting in track, staying with her host family - the Harmons, what it's like being away from home, and her expectations of America. She also talks about the Oregon weather, American food (cookies!), skiiing for the first time, and why she wanted to visit the USA.

      Transcript available:

Welcome To America

by BECKY HAMMILL

America hosts more international students than any other country. There are a record of 900,000 international students in America. Our new additions to the Mac-Hi students are Marie Ecoffey, Candelaria Maguregui, Meggi Hatzel, Vilde Roemo, and Isabel Blechsmidt.

I interviewed all of the lovely new students during school. Here is what I learned.

Marie Ecoffey is from Switzerland. When I met her, she gave me a big smile, and I was very excited. She is one of the nicest people I’ve met. One of her most favorite things about America is the food.  She didn’t get to choose to come here, though. The biggest difference between America and Switzerland is the school system. In Switzerland, Marie has already graduated. Also, they start learning English around age 14, in addition to their native language. She became a foreign exchange student because she wanted to learn to speak English, in addition to French, German and Italian. The hardest part about being away from home, she said, is being away from her family and friends.

Candelaria Maguregui is from Argentina. She is very sweet, and I am glad that I got to meet her. She came to America to learn the language and culture, which she's been able to experience with her host family, the Harmons (Mindy Harmon, her host-sister, is a senior this year). Candelaria told me that she enjoys English despite its difficulties. Many of the people I have spoken to from different countries like English, too. She said that they learn English basically whenever. The classes in Argentina are way different from in America. She has 2 older brothers that she misses.

Meggi Hatzel is from Germany. She’s in my 1st period and 2nd period classes, so I get to see her often. She’s very shy, which I can understand. Meggi had a choice as to which country she got to go to. She wanted to speak English better, so she has to choose between the United Kingdom or the United States. She chose the US because it’s further away. Germany and America are different in certain ways. Here in America, people are more friendly, she said. It’s also somewhat more expensive. She speaks 3 languages: German, Greek, and English. I was surprised to hear that she can speak Greek, especially that she learned it so young. She has no siblings in Germany, so the hardest part for her to be away from her home is being away from her friends.

Next up, is the lovely Vilde Roemo. Vilde is from a small town in Norway called Namdalseid. “I like how all the different cultures are equal, and I like the people. Everyone is so open-minded,” she said. She chose America because she wanted to experience the American way of living. I asked her about how this country differs from Norway, and she told me it's more diverse culturally. She started learning English in second or third grade. “Being away from everyone I love, including my dog,” Vilde said, is the hardest part about being away from home, especially her five older siblings. I couldn’t agree more. Including her native tongue, she admitted to speaking some "pretty bad" Spanish.

Our own Mac-Hi student, Anna Lonai, left to Taiwan to be a foreign exchange student. I messaged her on Facebook and got to catch up with her. I asked her why she picked Taiwan, and she admitted that she wasn’t really sure. She thought it would be pretty cool to learn Mandarin, being so different from English, and she wanted to go somewhere very different from America. Anna loves Taiwan; she says it’s very beautiful and exciting. The people are friendly and there is lots to do. Of course, it’s hard for her to be away from her family. The language is a real challenge for her, as it would be for anybody. Anna’s classmates are awesome, she says, but it’s hard for her to make real friends when she can’t communicate. “My host family is so sweet. I’m the only kid though, which is a little sad.” she says.  

If you haven’t met any of these lovely ladies, you should set out to do so. I enjoyed talking to every single one of them, even if some of the interviews were via Facebook. They are all very sweet. I hope to get to know them more, and you should, too.