Baker High track champions Gressley, Norton receive state title rings
Baker High’s Sammy Gressley and Kate Norton got their state title rings Tuesday after a spring that put Baker track in the record book.
Sammy Gressley and Kate Norton added one more keepsake to Baker High’s championship spring Tuesday, July 8, when they received rings honoring their state titles. The presentation turned a season of fast times, record throws and podium finishes into something tangible for a Baker program that had already made its mark at Hayward Field in Eugene.
Gressley’s season stood out as one of the strongest in Baker track history. At the 2026 OSAA/OnPoint Community Credit Union Track & Field State Championships, she won the 100, 200, 400 and long jump in Class 4A, becoming the first Bulldog to win four individual state titles in one year. Norton added Baker’s other individual crown in the shot put, giving the Bulldogs two champions in the same state-meet lineup.
The sweep was more than a headline result. Gressley transferred to Baker from 1A Powder Valley as a junior, then pushed through surgery recovery and a November warning that the four-title run probably would not happen. Instead, she finished the spring with a state meet performance that OSAA coverage singled out among the meet’s top performances, and Baker’s girls team finished third overall while the boys placed seventh.
The road to Eugene was already lined with records. Gressley broke Baker High’s 200-meter record at the Ontario Icebreaker in March, then tied a 53-year-old Baker High 100-meter mark set by Lynn Edmonson on April 17. Norton broke the Baker High shot put record with a 41-foot-10-inch throw on April 14 at Ontario, and later kept bettering her own standard as the season progressed.
Those marks gave the ring presentation added weight. Baker High did not end its season with one standout athlete carrying the load; it sent two athletes to state titles and backed them with a girls team that finished third and a boys team that took seventh. For Baker County, the rings now stand as a permanent reminder that this was not a one-day surge, but a season in which Baker Bulldog track and field produced results that rewrote school history.
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