Jakob Hiett and Nicole Rasmussen were named Most Valuable Runner for the boys and girls cross-country teams at an awards dinner Wednesday, Nov. 6.
Hiett, a junior, won seven races this year, including his second straight district title, and finished third in the state championships.
“It’s definitely unusual to win one race, let alone all but three,” said Assistant Coach Andrew “Keebler” Allen, who presented the award. “When you have a front runner like that, it’s easier to get teams to state.”
He said at the district championships, Sweet Home finished with a two-point advantage over Elmira’s boys, who were packed together much better than the Huskies, making Hiett’s top finish critical to the team’s state qualification effort.
“It’s almost like negative points when we have someone like him,” Allen said.
Rasmussen was similarly key to the girls’ placing second at district to qualify for state for the sixth time in seven years – their only miss by a point in 2008.
Rasmussen was district champion as a sophomore and placed second in her other three district races, including this year, when she ran ill and finished 10 seconds behind Cottage Grove’s Brianna Wright.
But Rasmussen ran a lifetime best for the 5000 at state to place sixth, 34 seconds ahead of Wright and 22 seconds ahead of Scappoose’s Charlie Davidson, whom she had not beaten since they were sophomores.
“That just doesn’t happen very much,” said Head Coach Billy Snow, noting that Rasmussen is a four-time all-league and all-state honoree. “She tried hard this year, not to knock her other years. She knew she had to. She didn’t get to train during the summer like she could have because she was working two jobs in North Dakota.”
Both Hiett and Rasmussen are invited to run in the Border Clash, which will match up the top runners from Oregon and Washington at the Nike corporate campus in Beaverton Saturday evening, Nov. 23.
Snow said the Huskies had an outstanding season, particularly in light of the thinness of their roster.
“Numbers always help,” he said. “We couldn’t afford to have a lot of injuries. But in cross-country you can’t back off when you get to where you want to be (in conditioning).”
He credited much of their success to the runners who spent the summer on the road training.
“Our season started before fall,” he said. “Some ran all summer. It paid off hugely. There were gains by some individuals that we never would have guessed would happen and there were less injuries. Both teams made state.
“That work paid off and that’s what makes good cross-country teams and good cross-country runners.”
The Ironman Award, which goes to the team member(s) who misses the fewest practices, went to Hiett and Sierra Swanson, neither of whom missed any, Snow said.
“Being at practice on a consistent basis is huge,” he said. “It’s more important than talent.”
The Will to Win Award went to Ian Wingo, who, Allen said, was “right on the edge of the top eschelon of runners” and was a consistent leader for the boys team.
Rookie Runners of the Year were freshmen Dana Hiett and Issac Justham, who were solid middle-of-the-pack runners for much of the season. Hiett finished the district race as the Huskies’ No. 2 runner and Justham was the third finisher for Sweet Home at state.
Most Improved went to sophomore Maria Daniels, whose improvement over her rookie year was off the charts for what cross-country coaches normally expect – a six-minute PR to start the season and continued improvement thereafter.
The Inspirational Award, voted on by team members, went to sophomores Swanson and Kayleen Keeney, the latter of whom also made head-turning progress in her rookie season.
“Sierra is a good runner, and Kayleen, in her first year, was right behind Sierra at districts (and state), all of a sudden” Allen said. “Kayleen came that far.”
Nicole Rasmussen was the lone four-year letter winner for either team, while Jakob Hiett and Wingo both received their third letters. Two-year letters went to Robert Gourley, Stephen Bishop and Swanson.
First-year letter winners were Dana Hiett, Keeney, Justham, Daniels, Natasha Rasmussen and Joseph Rasmussen.
Junior varsity certificate winners were Aaron Blanchard, who battled a knee injury left over from last year’s wrestling season, for much of the year, freshman Nick Tolman, Linh Vu and sophomore Sierrah Owen, who got a late start on the season after recovering from an injury.