Sweet Home’s cross-country team started the season Friday, Sept. 9, in a new venue: Sisters.
The Huskies competed in the “first annual” Folk Festival Cross-Country Meet held on the Outlaws’ home course, on and behind the high school.
Sweet Home’s boys finished fifth in a field of six teams with 106 points, led by senior Trey Reed’s 12th-place finish.
Sisters junior Jordan Pollard won the boys race in 17:39.5, leading the Outlaws to a fourth-place finish (88 points) behind Bend (39), Yamhill-Carlton (47) and Crook County (84). Yamhill-Carlton senior Dylan Schmidt was second, in 18:00.5.
Sweet Home Coach Dan Bixler said the flat 5K course, which was largely grass, dirt trails and about half a mile of gravel path, was “surprisingly slow.”
“Almost everybody complained about how much dust there was.”
Behind Reed, Husky varsity finishers were: sophomore Tanner Sayers, 21st in 19:45.0; junior Ricky Yunke, 22nd in 19:58.7; senior Kobe Olsen, 25th in 20:06.3; sophomore Noah Dinsfriend, 26th in 20:06.6; freshman Zach Zanona, 32nd in 21:06.3; junior Noah Taraski, 36th in 21:43.0; and junior Cameron Taber, 40th in 22:35.2.
Bixler said Taraski was slowed by a sprained ankle.
Both varsity and junior varsity runners ran the same distance and coaches had to designate which of their runners were competing in which division ahead of time.
JV finishers for Sweet Home were freshman Conner Ford in 21:57.2; senior Rick Rietz in 23:06.6; junior Jake Hindmarsh in 23:06.9; sophomore Brad Wolthuis in 23:08.9; freshman Tristan Saultz in 24:11.4; freshman Gabe Aiello in 24:30.4; and freshman Corban Wright in 24:37.1.
The lone girl to compete for the Huskies Friday was freshman Lauren Taber, who finished in 42.07.7.
“Overall, I think we did pretty well,” Bixler said, noting that the Huskies will continue to improve in their conditioning.
Sweet Home’s schedule gets more intense this week with some hilly courses. On Wednesday, the Huskies will run at Silver Falls Oktoberfest Invitational at State Park, one of the “longest-running – (pun intended)” cross-country meets in Oregon. For the second year in a row, the course will not include the “Monster,” a hill climb legendary among cross-country athletes who have had to run it, but will still be an intensely hilly run.
On Saturday, Sweet Home will compete in the Three Course Challenge at Camp Rilea, north of Seaside, where the runs include mud pits and sand hills. More than 80 schools are expected to compete in three high school races over varying distances on the boys and girls sides. They include Sisters, Cottage Grove and Junction City from the Sky-Em League, as well as Lebanon.