On Feb. 3, 1987, President Ronald Reagan signed Proclamation 5606, declaring Feb. 4, 1987, National Women in Sports Day.
Every year since, National Girls and Women in Sports Day (NGWSD) celebrates female athletes’ accomplishments and honors the progress women in sports have made toward equality in participation and access.
Wednesday, Feb. 4, was the 40th NGWSD.
A year ago, longtime high school sports writer René Ferrán unveiled for High School On SI a list of the 50 greatest girls athletes in Oregon high school sports history.
Headed up by St. Mary’s Academy legend Anna Maria Lopez through No. 50 Ashley Smith of Oregon City, the list celebrated the rich history of the state’s top female athletes on the 39th anniversary of the creation of NGWSD.
Now, with NGWSD turning 40 this month, The Oregonian/OregonLive tasked Ferrán with adding to the list another 50 athletes who have made significant contributions to the state’s high school sports scene.
The countdown continues today with No. 60 through No. 51. (The year listed beside each name is the year she graduated from high school.)
Let’s celebrate together the best of the best and their many achievements in their favorite sports.
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60. Maria Mutola, Springfield, 1992 (cross country, track and field)
Mutola was born in 1972 in Mozambique, a country in Southeast Africa, and competed at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Because of a lack of professional training available in her country, she received a scholarship through the Olympic Solidarity Committee, an arm of the International Olympic Committee that offers scholarships to athletes studying and training abroad.
In 1991, she arrived at Springfield, where a staff member spoke Portuguese, and after the OSAA declared her eligible, she ran for the Millers cross country team, winning the 4A state title in the fall. She chose not to compete for Springfield during the spring track season, instead focusing on her international career.
Mutola won 30 international medals during her illustrious career, including Olympic gold in the 800 meters at the 2000 Sydney Games, three outdoor world championships and seven indoor.
She returned to Springfield last summer as she was being honored at the Prefontaine Classic, where she holds the record for most wins (16).
59. Sue Graham, Corvallis, 1966 (tennis)
Tennis was the first sport in which the Oregon State High School Athletic Association awarded girls state championships, holding its first tournament in 1946 — two years before adding swimming and two decades before track and field.
There were several multiple-time champions during the sport’s infancy as an OSAA sport, but it took two decades for the first four-time champion to emerge.
That would be Graham, who defeated David Douglas’ Julie Kaspari for each of her first three titles before completing the sweep with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Roseburg’s Sherry Sevall.
Kaspari almost ended Graham’s run in Graham’s sophomore year, winning the first set 8-6 and pushing Graham to 22 games in the decisive third set before falling 12-10.
Graham played a couple seasons for Oregon State but never earned one of the two available tennis scholarships at the school. She transferred to the California College of Arts and Crafts in Berkeley, where she studied graphic design.
She eventually moved to Utah, where she could indulge her lifelong love of ceramics. She has been exhibited in shows throughout the West during her career.
58. Annamarie Maag, Jesuit, 2011 (cross country, track and field)
Maag became the first Oregon big-school girl to win three consecutive cross country state championships and earned three individual titles on the track as part of six Jesuit teams that won team championships.
She arrived on the scene as a freshman on the track team, qualifying for the 6A state meet in the 1,500 meters and placing third.
That prompted her to turn out for cross country as a sophomore, and she won three invitationals en route to securing the first of three successive Metro League and state titles. In the spring, she went undefeated in the 1,500 and 3,000 to sweep the gold medals.
She repeated as cross country and 3,000 champion as a junior, and she came back her senior season for her historic run at Lane Community College, when her winning time of 18 minutes, 11 seconds, was the third-fastest run to that point in meet history.
Maag earned All-America honors with a 15th-place finish at the Nike Cross Nationals. She looked to add a third 3K title in the spring but was stunned by South Eugene’s Erin Clark in the final.
Maag sits in the top 50 all-time state lists in the 1,500 (47th, 4:32.46) and 3,000 (32nd, 9:49.18).
She ran for Georgetown University, helping the Hoyas win their first NCAA team title as a freshman and twice qualifying for the NCAA East Region Championships in the 5,000.
57. Baylee Touey, North Valley, 2019 (soccer, track and field, basketball)
Touey won 11 4A state championships on the track and a state title on the soccer pitch her sophomore year, when she won the first of her two 4A player of the year awards.
She scored 31 goals with 11 assists that season, followed by a 34-goal season as a junior. She found the back of the net 40 times as a senior and had 10 assists, earning player of the year honors again.
Touey finished with 115 goals (No. 11 on the all-time state list) and 32 assists, making the all-state first team three times.
Her only blemish on the track came in her first state final as a freshman in 2016, when she lost to Astoria’s Natalie Cummings by three-hundredths of a second in the 100-meter final.
She won the 200 and 400 titles that year, and over the next three seasons, she swept the sprint races, capping her run with an outstanding performance at the 2019 state meet at Mt. Hood Community College, matching her personal best in the 100 (12.10 seconds) and breaking 57 seconds for the first time in the 400 (56.24).
All three of her winning times — including 24.63 in the 200 — rank in the top 50 on the all-time state list.
She competed in soccer and track at Southern Oregon University, scoring nine goals as a freshman in 2019 and finishing with 15 goals and eight assists in 2,832 minutes before suffering a knee injury midway through her senior season.
Touey ran the anchor leg on SOU’s 4×100 and 4×400 relay teams at the NAIA Outdoor Championships as a junior, with the 4×100 finishing second — one of three times she was an All-American relay member.
She ran the third leg on the school-record 4×100 (46.11) and 4×400 (3:45.81) and ranks fifth on the school’s all-time list in the 100 (12.17) and ninth in the 200 (25.28).
56. Nicole Peterson, Jesuit, 2016 (volleyball, tennis)
Peterson was one of the most versatile players to come through Jesuit’s volleyball dynasty, garnering 6A player of the year honors as a junior outside hitter and MaxPreps national player of the year as a senior after moving to setter. She led the Crusaders to back-to-back state titles as part of a 64-match win streak.
She was recognized as one of the premier servers in Oregon, recording a 6A-record 232 aces in high school, prompting rival coach Rick Lorenz of Central Catholic to state, “In my 40 years as a head varsity coach, I have not seen a better serve than Nicole Peterson’s.”
Her junior year, she hit .301 with 264 kills, 209 digs, 17 blocks and 57 aces as Jesuit went 31-0 and defeated Central Catholic in four sets for the championship, with Peterson putting a bow on her player of the year campaign with 11 kills and 10 digs in the final.
The following season, Peterson shifted to setter, where she deftly led the Crusaders to a second consecutive title. She had 956 assists with just nine errors in 86 sets and recorded 142 digs, 120 aces, 195 kills and 22 blocks, posting a .453 hitting percentage.
In a state final rematch, Jesuit again beat Central Catholic in four sets, with Peterson dishing out 40 assists on 55 attempts and tallying six kills, 13 digs and five blocks.
Besides winning Gatorade player of the year, she was a USA Today and Under Armour All-American and the first Oregon volleyball player named MaxPreps national player of the year.
Peterson also was a fine tennis player, teaming with Danielle Larner to reach the state semifinals three times in doubles. They fell to sisters Taylor and Emily Rees of Lincoln in straight sets in the 2015 championship match.
Peterson originally committed to San Francisco but eventually signed with Arizona State, where she played setter and outside hitter. She led the Sun Devils in assists in 2017 and 2018, and she recorded a team-high 10 double-doubles in kills and assists as a junior.
She finished college with 1,970 assists, 684 digs, 156 kills, 54 blocks and 56 aces, after which she was named a graduate assistant coach in the program. After three seasons, she moved on to Grand Canyon for two years and joined the staff at Brown University in February 2025.
55. Shoni Schimmel, Hermiston/Franklin, 2010 (basketball)
Schimmel dazzled fans, teammates and opponents for four years — two for Hermiston and two at Franklin after transferring to the Southeast Portland school to improve her chances of earning a Division I scholarship.
More important to her was being a role model to the Native community as a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla throughout her career, which extended from her high school days to four years at Louisville — where she led the Cardinals to the national championship game as a junior and was an All-American as a senior — to four years in the WNBA.
Her road to stardom started in Hermiston, where she led the Bulldogs to back-to-back 20-win seasons and was the 5A player of the year as a sophomore as Hermiston reached the state final.
After that season, she moved to Portland and played for her mother, Ceci Moses, as the Quakers went 43-10 over two seasons and placed sixth at the 6A state tournament her senior year, when Schimmel scored a then-6A-record 805 points (broken by Jazzy Davidson last winter) and again won state player of the year honors and earned All-American recognition from several publications.
She finished with 2,120 points and held the state record for 3-pointers (353) until La Salle Prep’s Taycee Wedin broke it eight years later. Schimmel is fourth on the all-time state assists list with 637 and fifth in steals with 528.
After finishing her Louisville tenure second on the school’s scoring list with 2,174 points (she’s since fallen to third), she was a first-round draft pick of the Atlanta Dream. She made the All-Star team both of her seasons with Atlanta, earning All-Star Game MVP honors as a rookie.
Her WNBA career ended after being waived by the Las Vegas Aces in 2018, and she returned to Northeast Oregon. In 2023, she pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor assault charge and was sentenced to two years of probation and 40 hours of community service.
54. Emily Wisniewski, Crescent Valley, 2025 (cross country, track and field)
Wisniewski played soccer growing up, but she would tag along with her mother, Loren, on runs along the hilly trails of Chip Ross Park in Corvallis.
So, when she arrived at Crescent Valley, the die was cast. Wisniewski dropped soccer to focus on distance running.
It’s fair to say it was the right decision.
Wisniewski became the first Oregon girl to win four cross country state titles, along the way breaking the Lane Community College course record as a junior, when she won in 17 minutes, 5.8 seconds, smashing the previous mark by more than 20 seconds. She won the Northwest Regional title and took third at Nike Cross Nationals that year.
After wrapping up her fourth championship, she placed 16th at Nike Cross Nationals to earn All-American honors for the second time.
In the spring, she returned to Eugene and made more history — this time at Hayward Field — becoming the sixth Oregon girl (and first since 2018) to win four 3,000-meter state titles. She is fifth on the all-time state list in the event with a personal-best 9:28.52. She returned to Hayward Field a month later and placed sixth in the 5K at the Nike Outdoor Nationals.
Wisniewski is running for North Carolina State, where she redshirted during the fall cross country season.
53. Jaida Ross, North Medford, 2020 (track and field, soccer, basketball)
Ross was a defender growing up playing soccer, and she picked up basketball as a middle schooler.
Her coach at Hedrick Middle School, Piet Voskes, also happened to be the head track coach at North Medford. He suggested she try throwing the shot put, and Ross embraced it right away.
While Ross remained an all-Southwest Conference performer in soccer and a valuable post player off the bench in basketball, she’d found her calling.
She won her first 6A state title in the shot put as a freshman, finished second in the shot and third in the discus the next year, and added a second shot championship and another bronze in the discus as a junior.
Ross was undefeated in the shot her junior season, including a personal-best mark of 48 feet, 5 inches, at the Medford Distance Carnival that ranks No. 7 in state history.
She was set to take aim at becoming the third Oregon girl to throw 50 feet when the COVID-19 pandemic swept the country, wiping out her senior season.
She graduated from Logos Charter well on her way to attaining her master’s degree in psychology, continuing her education at the University of Oregon. As a junior in 2024, she broke the collegiate record as the first woman to break 20 meters with a throw of 20.01 meters (65-7.75), later becoming the first UO woman to win the NCAA title in the event.
She qualified for the Paris Olympics with a third-place finish at the U.S. Olympic Trials, missing the medals podium by four centimeters (1.5 inches). She completed her college competition with a runner-up finish at the 2025 NCAA Indoor Championships, and she placed eighth at the World Championships that summer.
52. Lauren Burke, Marist Catholic, 2016 (softball)
Burke’s first sport wasn’t softball, but tennis — she first picked up a racket at age 4 and played friendly matches with her mom, Cheryl. But it didn’t take long for Lauren to follow in the footsteps of older sister Shawna, including getting asked to fill in on Shawna’s U10 softball team — as a 7-year-old — when it was short-handed.
By the time she arrived at Marist Catholic, she had honed her game playing alongside her sister and training year-round in a barn on their property in Coburg. As a freshman, she earned co-player of the year in the Midwestern League, the first of her four 4A all-state selections and the first of her three NFCA High School All-America nods.
As a junior, she won the first of consecutive Gatorade state player of the year awards, when she batted .701 with 67 runs, 18 doubles, 21 home runs (the state record until Scio’s Myleigh Cooper broke it last season), 59 RBIs, 24 steals and a 1.510 slugging percentage.
The next year, she hit .630 with 13 doubles, 10 home runs, 66 runs, 30 stolen bases and 42 RBIs to lead the Spartans to their first state title since 2010.
Burke finished her four years as the state’s all-time leader in hits (255) and with the three highest single-season hit totals, including a record 75 as a junior during a stretch in which she enjoyed a 65-game hit streak.
She scored a state-record 217 runs, and her .630 batting average is tied for third on the all-time list.
Burke signed with the University of Oregon, joining her first club coach from age 7, Mike White, at her childhood dream school. She was a Pac-12 All-Freshman selection in 2018, but after White took the job at the University of Texas, Burke transferred to join him in Austin, where she played four seasons and batted .311 (.375 on-base percentage) with 13 home runs and 111 RBIs.
51. Maranda Brownson, Yoncalla, 2001 (track and field, basketball)
There’s not much Brownson couldn’t do for the Eagles, and her accomplishments led to her induction into the NFHS National High School Sports Hall of Fame in 2023.
On the track, she dominated her 2A competition, becoming one of two Oregon athletes to win 16 state titles — the maximum allowed by the OSAA. They were all in individual events, as she was the only Yoncalla athlete to qualify for state most years. Her junior and senior seasons, the 40 points she scored solo were enough to bring home team trophies.
She showed off her versatility, never duplicating the slate of events she completed each year. She won titles in the 100-meter hurdles and 200 all four years — her prelim time of 14.72 seconds in the 100 hurdles as a senior is the 2A meet record — the long jump three times, the high jump and triple jump twice and the 100 once.
Brownson ranks among the state’s all-time top 50 marks in the 100 hurdles (14.64 seconds, 43rd), long jump (18 feet, 10.5 inches, tied for 29th), triple jump (38-8, tied for 21st) and high jump (5-8, tied for 27th).
She won the Big Fir League’s player of the year award in basketball as a junior and senior, leading the Eagles to three state tournaments, including a third-place finish in 2000.
Brownson ran track for the University of Nevada, winning the Western Athletic Conference indoor title in the pentathlon in 2004. She is on three of the Wolf Pack’s all-time top 10 lists — pentathlon (fourth, 3,899 points) and 55 hurdles (ninth, 8.31) indoors and heptathlon (seventh, 5,283 points) outdoors.
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