Sweet Home’s Jakob Hiett took first place at the Marist Cross-Country Invite at Richardson Park on Fern Ridge Reservoir Friday, Sept. 6.
Hiett, in his first race as a junior, ran 16:15 – his fastest high school time so far, on the flat and fast course.
Nicole Rasmussen was eighth in the girls varsity race, in 20:54. Sophomore Sierra Swanson, the only other Sweet Home girl in the varsity race, ran 24:24, good for 50th in a field of 70.
“We had a pretty good meet there,” Coach Billy Snow said. “I thought the kids ran well.”
For the boys, senior Ian Wingo was 30th in the field of 80 in 18:00, which, Snow noted, is about a minute and a half faster than his opening race last year. Senior Chace Hutchins set a personal best cross-country time of 19:26, finishing 55th; freshman Issac Justham was two spots back in 19:29 in his first high school race, and senior Stephen Bishop also set a personal best, running 19:50 to finish 63rd; while sophomore Joseph Ramsussen was 72nd in 21:02.
Sheldon won the boys race with 24 points, followed by Marist with 49. Sweet Home was seventh with 174, with Elmira trailing in 10th with 223.
Snow said Hiett was the first Sweet Home boy in recent memory to win a big race.
“That was impressive,” he said. “Olivia (Johnson) was the last one to win a big meet – the Harrier’s Challenge. The last guy to win a big race like that, I have no idea.
Three rookies, sophomores Julian Hesberg (69th, 22:26) and Aaron Blanchard (80th, 23:08) and freshman Nick Toman (92nd, 23:33) competed in the 5000-meter junior varsity race.
On the girls side, freshmen Dana Hiett (23rd, 25:02) and Natasha Rasmussen (27th, 25:19) and sophomore Kayleen Keeney (30th, 25:35) all ran their first high school race in the junior varsity competition, while Maria Daniels, also a sophomore, finished in 32:07.
Though Sweet Home had only two girls in the varsity race and couldn’t score, while league opponent Elmira did, Snow said the Huskies would have beaten the Falcons because all but one of them finished behind Keeney, who, Snow said, surprised the coaches with her performance.
“I thought Kayleen had a great race,” he said. “She was a ways behind Natasha at the two-mile mark and somehow she made a big move and she was right there.”
Coming up for the Huskies are four meets held on challenging courses – the Silver Falls/Oktoberfest Invitational on Wednesday, Sept. 11, and then, after a 10-day break in scheduled races, the huge Three Course Challenge at Camp Rilea north of Seaside. Closely following that are the Huskies’ own Camp Tadmor Invitational on Sept. 24, and the Harrier’s Challenge in Cottage Grove on Sept. 26. All of those meets will feature steep hills.
“We’re not going to have any PRs coming up in our next few races, but we do get to match up with some league teams,” Snow said.
Cottage Grove and Junction City are scheduled to run at Silver Falls, and every league team with the exception of Elmira is scheduled to run at the Three Course Challenge.