Lake Oswego's Baron Kurland races to a seventh-place finish in the 400 meters at the Class 6A state track and field meet at Hayward Field on Saturday, May 31. (Miles Vance)

The Lions made their mark.

The West Linn boys track and field team, led by first-year coach Dan Wright, broke through to finish seventh at the Class 6A boys state track and field meet, held Friday and Saturday, May 30-31, at Hayward Field.

The Lions – who didn’t score a point at state last year – notched five top-seven finishes at state to place seventh with 23.5 points, trailing just Jesuit at 66, Lincoln at 62, Sheldon at 39, Tigard at 35, Oregon City at 33 and Sherwood at 30.

West Linn senior Peter Daniels led the way at state, racing to fourth in the 400 meters at 48.38 seconds, then coming back to finish seventh in the 200 at 21.94, and finally, running the anchor leg on his team’s third-place effort in the 4×400 relay at 3:18.48.

Further, Daniels broke the West Linn record in the 400 in his preliminary race, posting a 47.96 to eclipse the previous mark set by 1998 WLHS grad Evan Kelty. Daniels is also a member of school-record 4×100 and 4×400 teams.

“The goal for me was to break the school record in prelims because I didn’t want it to come down to the last race of my high school career,” Daniels said, also commenting on his vast improvement as a senior. “Last year, I was a nobody, and now I’m here.”

Regarding his effort in the 400 – he finished just 0.08 seconds out of second place – Daniels said he wished he would have gone faster at the start of his race, but was satisfied with his finish.

“I definitely did not go out hard enough,” he said. “But there was a big headwind so I was really nervous going into it. … I got out slower than I (wanted) to, but I still got fourth.”

Other West Linn highlights included: junior Aidan Sauer took third in the 300 intermediate hurdles at 39.79; the 4×400 team of Sauer, sophomore Isaac Compaore, junior M.J. Kennybrew and Daniels placed third at 3:18.48; Compaore took sixth in the high jump at 6 feet, 3.25 inches; and senior Warren Stanton took seventh in the high jump at 6-3.25.

For Lake Oswego, senior Baron Kurland ran to a seventh-place finish in the 400 at 49.29.

For Lakeridge, senior Treyson Eddleman placed seventh in the shot put at 47-8.75.