Sweet Home’s veteran cross-country runners are better than they were last year at this time – and they haven’t been on a fast course yet, Coach Kambria Schumacher said Monday.
The Huskies competed Saturday, Sept. 28, at the giant Nike Portland XC Invitational, which drew 150 teams from as far away as Southern California and Idaho.
The meet featured 11 separate races for the boys and 10 for the girls, divided into classes and school-size categories.
Although the meet, until last year held at the Portland Meadows racetrack, has traditionally been a very fast course, this year’s event, held at Blue Lake Park in Gresham, turned out not to be.
“Because of all the rain, quite a bit of it ended up getting really muddy,” Schumacher said. “It was really squishy. That sucks the energy out of you.”
Sweet Home’s varsity boys finished 26th out of 39 teams in their race, which included 272 runners.
Tristan Saultz was Sweet Home’s top finisher, 55th overall in 17:30.8, behind Sisters’ Ethan Hosang, who paced the Outlaws to a 14th-place team finish, placing 35th in 17:17.
Behind Saultz were Gavin Walberg, 79th in 17:30.8; Eddy Martinez-Maya, 97th in 17:53.3; Treyson Smith, 142nd in 18:16.7; Rian Howard, 224th in 19:14.20; Nate Coleman, 249th in 19:43.60; and Jorel Leyba, 258th in 20:00.10.
Schumacher said the Huskies’ top five varsity finishers “all ran fairly well.”
“I thought it was actually a pretty good race for them,” she said. “Some of them weren’t very happy with their times, but I thought it was fine. They haven’t had any easy running and they’re running on tired legs.”
She said Martinez-Maya did a good job of pacing, and significantly closed a 100-meter gap on teammate Walberg.
Newcomer Howard was running sick, she said.
“He actually ran a pretty decent race for not having a ton of training. He ran on guts. I was excited to see that.”
For the first time in several years, the Huskies had five girls in the varsity race, though that was partly due to the fact that a traffic delay and some other circumstances prevented Lexi Schilling from getting into the race she was registered for, and Sweet Home actually ran the Division II race, with larger schools, rather than the Division III.
They finished 28th in the field of 29 teams, nearly all of which were 6A or 5A schools.
Jessy Hart was first for the girls, 61st out of 206 runners, in 21:26.5.
Sicily Neuschwander was 168th, in 23:31.10, followed by Summer Hicks, 197th in 25:14.90, Meeja Bitter, 199th in 25:37.70 and Schilling, 206th in 27:45.20.
Schumacher said she believes Hart, still well off the 19:58 personal best she posted last year at the district championships, can run faster and said they will be strategizing to make that happen.
Neuschwander, she said, “had a really good race.
“She surprised me a lot with her time. I was not expecting her to run that yet. She’s doing really well.”
In the boys JV races, Aiden Shamek led Sweet Home in the Small Schools JV 5000 race, placing 91st out of 213 runners, in 21:16.20. Adrian Kast was a step behind, 92nd in 21:16.70, and Brian Frick finished 152nd, in 22:51.60.
“Aiden did well,” Schumacher said, noting that the sophomore, who is new to cross-country, started “moderately” and ran negative splits in the 3.1-mile race. “He ran a pretty smart race. It was a good day for him.”
In the 3000-meter Novice JV race, Paul Amrein was 69th out of 177 runners in 13:55; Dakota Seiber was 147th, in 16:05.9; and Christopher Kurtz was 159th, in 16:43.90.
Up next for Sweet Home is the 16th Annual Harrier Classic, this Saturday at Bryant Park in Albany, which, Schumacher said, will likely be a fast course.
The 40 high school teams will largely be from the Willamette Valley, ranging from South Eugene, Sheldon and 6A-sized Salem and Portland schools to 1A/2A Division Central Linn and East Linn Christian.
Races begin at 9:30 a.m., with Sweet Home’s junior varsity boys beginning at 10:10 and 11:30, the girls varsity at 12:40 p.m and the boys at 1:20.
Schumacher noted that, with a month left before the district meet, a substantial number of the Huskies have already exceeded their lifetime bests from last year – on slower courses, and have been training hard, with a recovery period at hand.
“Albany should be a good opportunity,” she said.