When Georgia Koch first laced up her spikes as an eighth-grader, track and field was just supposed to help her become a better runner for her favorite sport — soccer.

And track has done just that and more for the Redmond High sophomore.

Koch is one of the top young soccer players in the area, but has blossomed into one of Central Oregon’s top track athletes. And her showing in the heptathlon at the Mondo Track Club Decathlon/Heptathlon on Friday and Saturday at Summit High is just the latest example. After two days and seven events, Koch finished with the second-most points (3,545) out of 31 athletes, and the most among Central Oregon competitors.

“I really wasn’t expecting to get second at all,” Koch said. “I haven’t done it before. I was going to try and take this as something fun and new. But obviously I am a very competitive person, so that didn’t really happen.”

She was surprised with how well she competed over the seven events — the 200 and 800-meter runs, 110 hurdles, shot put, javelin, high jump and long jump — primarily in the field events in which she had never competed and only had a week’s worth of practice.

Koch burst onto the track scene as a freshman and quickly became one of the state’s top runners in the 400. She won the event at the Intermountain Conference championships last spring, then finished second at the Class 5A state meet while also anchoring Redmond’s third-place 4×400 relay team.

Koch excelled in the running events, finishing second in the 200 (26.25 seconds) and winning the 800 (2:28.29), then proving she can run and leap at the same time with a sixth-place finish in the 100 hurdles (17.53).

But it was two events — an eighth-place finish in the long jump (14 feet, 8.75 inches) and her 21st-place in the javelin (62-3) — which she was most proud of.

“I did not think I was going to throw the javelin that far,” Koch said. “Long jump was another where I didn’t think I was going to do that well. I was still trying to figure out my steps and getting to the point where I finally got off the board when I wanted to.”

Koch jumped 4-6 in the high jump and tossed the shot put 23-3.25 to round out her first attempt in the heptathlon.

“It was something that my coaches wanted to get me into and I am glad they pushed me into it,” Koch said. “This event shows that I am not just a one-event athlete and that I can do multiple things as an athlete and I’m not just a runner.”

Molalla senior Peyton Craven won the heptathlon with a total of 3,805 points. Summit sophomore Jacqueline Haffner finished fifth. Haffner, who took third in the long jump at the state meet last spring, won the event with a leap of 17-6.

In the decathlon, Crook County senior Eli Oelkers was the lone Central Oregon athlete to crack the top-five. Last year’s 4A state champion in the long jump finished with 5,733 points, just behind winner Kale Jensen of Kiuslaw and Erik Borg (competing with Valley Flash of Spokane).

Oelkers won both the high jump and long jump. His jump of 21-5.5 in the long jump is just shy of 21-8.75, with which he won the long jump state title last season.