Scott Swanson
Capping a memorable season, Sweet Home won its first state trophy ever in girls cross-country Saturday at the OSAA 4A championships at Lane Community College.
The Huskies, with two runners, Olivia Johnson and Nicole Rasmussen, placing 10th and 11th overall, scored 149 points to beat fifth-place Scappoose by nine places.
The announcement that Sweet Home was the fourth-place team, which is as far as trophies are awarded to teams, caught the Huskies by surprise as the coaches were still adding up the points when the announcement was made.
“I thought we were close,” Johnson said. “I didn’t think we had gotten fourth. Placing at state is really hard. When we found out I was very excited. I didn’t expect it at all.”
Carissa Swanson said the Huskies were cooling down after the race and stretching when the announcement was made.
“I was thinking that it would be really cool if they actually called our team up there,” she said. “They called Siuslaw and the other two teams and then they called our name. I couldn’t believe it. Me and Caroline (Amendola) started crying.
The boys finished ninth out of 13 teams, right about where they were pegged to place.
Though cross-country is a difficult sport in which to rank teams because the physical makeup of courses vary widely, so times are not uniform, the Huskies went into the meet clearly among the top seven or eight teams, based on times. The state course was slightly altered this year due to work being done on the LCC track, on which the last 300 meters of the race usually takes place, which likely made the course slower because it was all on wet grass and chip trails.
Johnson, who had been nursing a sore knee during the last month of the season, still ran her best time ever at LCC, equaling the time she ran the week before at the district race, on a different course.
“I think I did well,” she said. “I got a PR from last year. That was exciting because last year I was seventh. I’m glad I got a PR.”
She said she wasn’t sure whether she would place or not in a field that was clearly faster than last year’s, led wire to wire by Klamath Union sophomore Alisha Luna (18:36), ahead of Ally Manley of Brookings Harbor (18:56). Siuslaw, led by Raelyn Robinson (fourth, 19:38), won the team title with 62 points, ahead of Hidden Valley (78) and Phoenix (113), with the Huskies scoring 149 points for fourth, ahead of Scappoose (158) and Cascade (161).
The boys were led by Nick Hall, in 26th place, in 17:14, with sophomore Daniel Danforth not far behind (36th, 17:36), followed by Kyle Hummer (38th, 17:39), Brett King (74th, 18:25), Lorenzo Virgen (75th, 18:25), Joe Stroud (96th 19:22) and Alec Goetz (100th, 19:53).
Philomath won the boys race with 78 points, ahead of Siuslaw (93) and La Salle (104).
Henley junior Zorg Loustalet was the individual winner in 16:04, followed by senior Josh Seekatz of Philomath (16:21). The top Sky-Em League finisher was Taylor Steele of Sisters, in fourth (16:22).
Cottage Grove finished sixth, with 150 points, while Sweet Home had 212.
“We had them pegged for ninth,” Snow said. “I figured they could beat the teams they beat. Our goal was to run near Cottage Grove. They run ahead of us and they’re easy to pick out (in the crowded field).”
Hall said he “did the best I could with what I have at the end of the season.”
Danforth said the race was “pretty fun” and he enjoyed the course.
“I like it because so many people are cheering you on,” he said.
Virgen, who ran injured at state last year, said he appreciated being healthy this time around.
“It was a lot better,” he said. “I didn’t run as good as I wanted to, but I ran a lot better than last year. It was a more difficult course this year.”
Snow said the soft surface on the course made things difficult for most of the runners, including Manly, the second-placer in the girls race, who usually runs 45 seconds faster over that distance.
“It was just not a fast course, especially not like the week before (at districts),” he said.
Swanson agreed.
“Personally, I felt really tired on that course,” she said. “I now other people did too. Caroline and I did not have our best races of the season at all. I know that for a fact. Last week it felt really good.”
On the girls side, Rasmussen, a freshman, ran 20:27, only seven seconds off her PR, which was et on a much faster course, to finish second for the Huskies, followed by Swanson (28th, 21:06), Paige Sanders (60th, 22:30), Jenna Kistner (72nd, 23:15), Caroline Amendola (77th, 23:38) and Kimber Swanson (98th (25:39).
Snow credited the top three runners and Kistner for pulling out the trophy run over teams like Scappoose and Cascade, which were ranked higher than the Huskies going in.
“The difference was our top three,” he said. “With Olivia and Nicole going back to back, that was huge. That wa s a huge difference-maker right there.”
Kistner, a senior who, Snow said, spent the entire summer running with her father, was a major key to the Huskies’ success this year, particularly with her fifth-place team finish at state.
“I don’t think Jenna has ever been fifth, unless someone else wasn’t running,” Snow said. “She is running a minute to a minute and a half faster this year. She just went out and did her miles; she was a stronger runner and she just ran with confidence all year. She has no kick. She just puts the hammer down and picks people off.”
Kistner said the course was muddy “and I think that worked in my favor.
“I started picking people off as much as I could,” she said.
Rasmussen said she was surprised by her finish.
“I felt more confident when I could see Olivia,” she said. “My side started hurting, but I tried to ignore that as much as I could.”
She said a quote by running legend Steve Prefontaine, “when you’re in pain, think about something good,” came to mind.
“I started thinking about my breathing and it went away,” she said.
Snow said the finish showed what the Huskies were made of.
“The beauty of it is that it shows you the character or strength of our team,” he said. “Where our normal fifth would have been Caroline, it wasn’t her day. We had another person step up, which was Jenna.”
He said he’s not sure how long Sweet Home has had a girls cross-country team – it’s been 50 years for the boys – but other than individual state champion Jessie Schra in the early 1990s, there haven’t been a lot of awards for the girls.
“It’s been from whenever the girls started running until Saturday before they could crack the top four,” Snow said. “We’ve had some decent teams when Jesse Schra was running, but they couldn’t put it together.
“I kind of put it out there for (this year’s team), they took it and ran with it. It was cool to see them reach that.
“Someone else will get a better (trophy) but they can say ‘We got the first one.’”
On the boys side, Snow said, the Huskies “earned some respect by way they ran at the end of the season – all with better times than at last year’s state meet.
“I’d love to see them come back on fire,” he said. “If they want to dedicate themselves to being on the award stand, this is what it takes.”
Hall said that can happen.
“This sets us up to place in the top five or four if we get it together this summer,” he said. “We could have five guys in the 17s and two guys in the 16s. We have a young team with a lot of talent.