Scott Swanson
Coming off one of its most successful seasons in school history, the Sweet Home cross-country team is looking to reload with a roster full of runners new to the program.
The Husky girls ran away from the rest of the league to win the district title last season, then won their first-ever state trophy, finishing fourth. The boys nipped Cottage Grove by one place, in a gutsy performance, at the district meet to qualify for state as well.
But that was then and this is now.
Gone is three-time district girls champion Olivia Johnson, who is now running at Corban University in Salem, and fellowgraduates Carissa Swanson, Jenna Kistner and Caroline Amendola. The boys have lost all but two of the varsity team that ran at state last year: seniors Kyle Hummer, Joe Stroud and Alec Goetz, who all graduated; junior Lorenzo Virgen, who decided to play football; and sophomore Brett King, who moved to Virginia.
As this season’s opening meet nears on Sept. 10, Coach Billy Snow has 20 runners on his roster, 10 boys and 10 girls. On the boys side, eight have never run a high school race and, for the girls, six have never run in high school.
“We are a combination of youth and inexperience,” Snow said. “This is definitely one of the most inexperienced squads I’ve had in recent years.”
But he’s not complaining.
For one thing, he’s got talent coming back, though the losses hurt.
Back for the boys is senior Nick Hall, who won the district championship in 2010 and was third in Sweet Home’s inaugural Sky-Em district race, behind two seniors who have graduated. Also back is junior Daniel Danforth, who was fifth at the district meet and who then went on to qualify for state in the 3000. Also returning is sophomore David Johnson, who got limited experience last year before having to drop out.
On the girls side, sophomore Nicole Rasmussen returns, second in the 1-2-3 finish for the Huskies in the girls race at the district meet and 11th in the state meet, seven seconds behind Johnson, who was 10th. Also back is junior Paige Sanders, who was seventh at the district meet – and fourth among the non-seniors. Rounding out the returnees are senior Kimber Swanson, who was the seventh runner for the varsity at district and state, and junior Tashana Mithen.
“We return a group of talented, seasoned veterans,” he said, adding that he expects leadership to arise out of that group of experienced runners on both the boys and girls side, but he’s got new maturity coming in.
“We’re young in experience but we’re not young in terms of year in school,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of juniors and seniors. There’s nothing wrong with that.”
In fact, Snow has seen an onslaught of upperclassmen on the girls side, recruited by the runners who departed and the returnees.
Newcomers for the girls are seniors Laura Hoy, Trysta Lewelling and AnneMarie Miller; junior Candalyn Johnson; and freshmen Elise Holden and Sierrah Owen.
Lewelling has experience as a junior varsity volleyball player but none of the others have high school sports experience.
On the boys side, newcomers are seniors Ryan Blackwell and Steven Fox, junior Saul Jones; sophomores Nick Mattson and Ian Wingo; and freshmen Jakob Hiett and Trevor Melson. Blackwell was a thrower for the track team last year and Jones has swimming experience. Hiett has already shown he can run at the varsity level and Wingo, though he didn’t run cross-country as a freshman, did well in track, running the 1500 at the district varsity meet.
What the newcomers lack in experience, they’ve made up for with effort, Snow said.
“I’m impressed,” he said. “Some of the new kids put in a lot of mileage, more than the veterans. That’s impressive, to commit to something when you don’t know what you’ve committed to. As a coach, you love that attitude.
“As a group, they’re working hard,” he said. “I love working with them because they listen and do what I ask them to do; they don’t whine about it.”
Looking at the league, Sisters appears to be the team to beat in both the boys and girls races, though the Outlaws lost four girls and three boys from their varsity to graduation, including district champion Taylor Steele. But Sisters has two talented sophomores in Brandon Pollard, who qualified for the state track meet in the 1500, and Zoe Falk, who was fourth at last year’s cross-country district race, then went on to win the 1500 and 800 district titles in track as a freshman.
Snow said it will depend on who the newcomers are for each team and who comes back.
“You never know,” he said. “The Elmira coach has said he has a good group coming up and La Pine and Cottage Grove have had great teams in past years.”
The Huskies’ schedule starts at 8 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 10, on Agate Beach at Newport, where Sweet Home has in recent years made a tradition of kicking off its season. After that come four tough races, all with nasty hill climbs: the Silver Falls Invitational on Sept. 14; the Huskies’ own Camp Tadmor Invitational on Sept. 20; the 3 Course Challenge at Camp Rilea in Seaside on Sept. 24; and the Harrier’s Challenge in Cottage Grove, more colloquially known as the “Dam Run.” Following are faster, flatter courses at the Paul Mariman Invitational (Oct. 8), an eight-team meet at Waterloo Park (Oct. 12), the Country Fair Classic in Elmira (Oct. 19), and the District (Oct. 27) and State (Nov. 5) meets at Lane Community College.