Sweet Home hosted all but one of its Oregon West Conference competitors Saturday on the grounds of Community Chapel at Ames Creek, and as Coach Kambria Schumacher put it, “it’s great to see right now how they are compared to other teams in the conference.”
The boys placed second to Philomath among six scoring teams, and the girls were fourth, behind Philomath, Stayton and Newport.
The good news for the girls, though, was that senior Jessy Hart placed eighth overall, out of 35 finishers, and ran a good race, Schumacher said.
Hart ran 24:23 on the course, which includes a stream crossing and some steep climbs, which explains why she didn’t better her time from the flat Stayton course she ran a week before.
“Jessy improved from her previous race,” Schumacher said. “She was further up in the field. It was great to be on our home course, where we’re comfortable with it.”
Behind Hart was Sicily Newschwander, 16th in 27:06, Meeja Bitter in 23rd (28:33), Maren Weld in 29th (30:23) and Summer Hicks in 31st (31:02).
“I was really happy with Sicily and Meeja as well,” Schumacher said, noting that Neuschwander and Weld are doubling in soccer and make most of the cross-country practices after finishing on the soccer field.
Junior Aliya Larsen of Newport was the overall girls winner, in 21:48, followed by Katie Chapman of Lowell (22:57), Myranda Marquez of Woodburn (23:00), Ingrid Hellesto of Philomath (23:10), Hope Bridge of Stayton (23:32), Maddy Mitzel of Stayton (23:52) and Kaeleigh Houchin of Philomath (23:52).
The girls ran together with the boys in three separate high school races, all over the same course with about half a dozen teams per race – but times were combined to create final results.
Philomath scored 35 points to edge Stayton (40), with Newport (79), Sweet Home (86) and Harrisburg (104) rounding out the full team finishers. Athletes from 16 schools participated, but most did not have the five runners necessary to score.
For the boys, Philomath showed it is probably the team to beat this year – unless Sisters produces a group that can run with the Warriors, who placed all five of their top runners in the top eight of the standings.
Jake Sieminski, who was running his second cross-country race, was the top finisher for the Huskies for the second week in a row, finishing 11th overall out of 58 runners, in 20:21.
Ethan Hurst was second for Sweet Home, 12th overall in 20:31, followed by Treyson Smith (14th in 20:54), Gavin Walberg (15th in 20:52) and Jorel Leyba (28th in 22:27).
“Jake is doing really well,” Schumacher said. “I love that his goal is he wants to win, rather than focusing on time. He was a little disappointed he didn’t place higher, but I think he did really well considering who his competition is.
“Ethan did really well – it looked like he was just having fun. Treyson is always solid; he did really well, and it was nice to have Jorel for the first race of the season.”
She said Leyba has been injured and “I think he did pretty well for just being in the pool for the last couple of weeks.”
Also for Sweet Home, Trace Marler finished in 25:14.
Philomath sophomore Brody Bushnell was the overall winner in 18:31, with Newport junior James Lakey second in 18:40, followed by Grant Hellesto of Philomath in 18:45.
The Warriors scored 19 points, with Sweet Home second (72), a point ahead of Stayton, followed by Newport (95), Country Christian (128) and Woodburn (129).
The Huskies will run at Cascade Friday. Schumacher said they’ll see Philomath again, but Sisters will be a question mark until Sweet Home hosts districts on April 3, on the same course they ran Saturday.