PREP TRACK AND FIELD: Port Angeles’ Easton Dempsey signs to run for George Fox
Published 4:15 pm Tuesday, March 17, 2026
PORT ANGELES — Oregon is a center in the U.S. for track and field, and Port Angeles’ Easton Dempsey will follow a long line of Port Angeles track athletes who have gone on to run track in the Beaver State.
Dempsey, a senior, signed a commitment last week to run track for George Fox University in Newberg, Ore.
Port Angeles distance runners Gracie Long and Jack Gladfelter both moved on to nearby Corban University in Salem, Ore.
Dempsey primarily runs distance events and plans to specialize in the 800 while running the 1,500 at times.
Dempsey’s high school coach Kyler McCaslin said he has put in a lot of work over the years to reach this moment.
“He’s put a lot of miles in,” McCaslin said. “The work this kid does is the reason he has this opportunity today. You don’t get these opportunities just by doing what we ask you to do.”
Dempsey said George Fox reached out to him after the track program saw some of the times he was posting as a sophomore. Since then, he has kept in touch with the George Fox coaches.
Dempsey was attracted to George Fox “because they have a good engineering program. And a good athletic program. They’re one of the best in [NCAA] D-3.”
Dempsey thanked his friends and his family for their support. He is the first member of his family to not only play college sports but go to college.
In his junior year, he won the 800 twice and the 1,600 once and finished third in the Olympic League and 11th in District 3.
Last summer, running for the HIFO Sports Track Club based in Lynnwood, he had a second in the 400, a second and third in the 800 and was part of a first-place 4×800 relay squad. He also finished 14th at the Westside Classic District Cross-Country meet and qualified for the state 2A meet.
In his senior year, he is planning an even bigger jump. He was not shy about saying his goal is to win the state championship in the 800 meters, his speciality. The 800 is an especially tough distance being halfway between a sprint and a distance run.
It’s not an unrealistic goal. Dempsey will get his first shot to post his first 800 time of the spring and see how it compares to the rest of the state at the Roughriders’ first track meet of the year at Olympic on Thursday. Port Angeles then hosts an Olympic League meet on Saturday. His top time last year was 1 minute, 58.08 seconds, a big jump from his sophomore top time of 2:13.38. No one has come close to cracking 2 minutes so far this spring, and the top times last year were in the 1:53-1:54 range.
