The Paul Mariman Invitational at Philomath is considered a good test for 4A-Division runners who are coming off the peak workouts of the season and getting ready to taper for districts.
Sweet Home got a look at three of the other teams in the league Saturday at this year’s Paul Mariman, but for the Huskies a lot of the view was from the rear.
In the boys varsity race, the Huskies were 16th in a field of 25 teams, scoring 347 points. Cottage Grove was ninth (265), led by sophomore Konrad Raum (16th, 17:45), two steps behind Sisters junior Jordan Pollard, who was 15th in 17:40.7. Behind the Lions was Junction City, 15th with 325 points, and Sisters finished 18th (429).
Trey Reed led the Huskies with a 26th-place finish in a field of 170 boys, running 18:08, 20 seconds off his pace the week before at South Albany’s Harrier Classic.
Tanner Sayers was 54th, in 18:50.0, followed by Ricky Yunke (83rd, 19:25.1), Noah Dinsfriend (88th, 19:34.0, Kobe Olson (99th, 19:56.6), Zach Zanona (141, 21:25.9) and Cameron Taber (145, 21:36.2).
Valley Catholic won the boys race with 84 points, followed by Bandon (113) and East Linn Christian (144), which had the fourth and fifth runners.
Nobody posted even a season’s best.
“I was kind of disappointed,” Coach Dan Bixler said. “Eerybody was kind of slow. The Sisters kid runs 16.40 and he ran 17:40. It looked like it was universal. For whatever reason, it was not a PR course for most of them.”
In the girls varsity race, Bethany Gingerich, running solo for Sweet Home, finished 82nd out of 146 runners in 24:47.0
Sydney Nichol of Sweet Home, running for East Linn Christian, was third, in 19:34.4 behind Sailor Hutton of Bandon (18:50.4) and Celie Mans of Siuslaw (19:13.6).
Philomath won the girls team race with 109 points, ahead of Sisters (119). Junction City was ninth (227).
Wesley Anderson of Sweet Home, also an East Linn runner, was 20th, in 17:54.0.
In the girls JV race, Elea Hewitt finished in 35:26.4 and Lauren Taber ran 39:44.
The Huskies will not compete again until Oct. 19, when they finish up the pre-district campaign with a trip to the Country Fair Classic at the Country Fair Grounds in Elmira. Races start with the girls JV at 3:45 p.m.
For the Huskies, it’s another chance to see where they stand going into the district meet, as all the Sky-Em teams are scheduled to be there.
“It looks like we’re probably third right now,” Bixler said.