Gressley, Norton keep rewriting Baker High track records

Baker High’s track record book is starting to look temporary. Sammy Gressley and Kate Norton have made this spring a rare run of rewrites, with Gressley breaking old school marks and then breaking her own new standards before the ink could dry.

Gressley opened the surge at the Ontario Icebreaker on March 20, running the 200 meters in 25.44 seconds. That snapped Baker’s previous girls record of 25.50, set by Tish Henes in 1995. Six weeks later, at the Kiwanis Twilight Invitational on May 1, Gressley cut that mark again, winning in 25.32 seconds. The progression has been quick enough to make the school’s record board feel like a weekly update.

She has done the same thing in the field. On April 1 at Vale, Gressley set Baker’s long jump record with a leap of 17 feet, 1 inch, breaking Jill Wood’s 1991 mark of 17 feet, 0.5 inch. Athletic.net later listed her outdoor best at 17 feet, 5 inches, another sign that the standard she set is already under pressure.

The 100 meters added another layer to the story at the River’s Edge meet on April 17 at Umatilla High School, where Gressley ran 12.30 seconds to tie a Baker school record that had stood for 53 years. That record belonged to Lynn Edmonson, and the tie underscored just how deep Gressley’s spring has been across multiple events, not just one specialty.

Norton has been building her own record chase in the throws. She won the shot put at the Ontario Icebreaker on March 20, part of a girls meet that also saw Molly Rasmussen win the high jump and Baker’s 4x400 relay team finish first. That mattered because it showed the program’s lift was spreading across the track and the field, not just riding one standout sprinter.

The record-breaking stretch continued at the Valley Family Health Care Twilight Meet at Ontario High School on May 8, when Gressley and Norton again produced new highs for Baker’s program. Taken together, the performances have Baker’s girls track team in a position it has not been in often: scoring points in sprints, jumps and throws at the same time. That kind of depth is exactly what can change the outlook for district and state, where one record-breaking athlete helps, but several of them can move a team from competitive to dangerous.