Sophomore Jakob Hiett achieved the goal he’d set for himself at the state 4A cross-country championships Saturday, Nov. 3, at Lane Community College, placing eighth to finish in the top 10.
His run capped an up-and-down season for the Huskies, one downer being the non-appearance of senior Daniel Danforth, who qualified for state at the Oct. 25 district meet, but did not run due to disciplinary reasons.
The girls team, running at state for the fourth straight year, finished 12th in the team race as Nicole Rasmussen led them with a 12th-place individual finish in 20:16.
Both she and Hiett came away with al-state honors, both finishing on the second team.
Though the course used for the state meet is held at the same location as the Sky-Em district championships, LCC, the layout is different and the course appeared slower Saturday than the previous week at district as nearly all Sky-Em runners failed to even match the times they ran on Oct. 25.
“It was a slow course,” Coach Billy Snow said. “At the bottom of the one hill kids were almost having to come to a stop so they wouldn’t slide. Everybody was slower.”
Rasmussen was the only Husky to actually improve on her time from last week, doing so by 12 seconds. She beat Sisters’ Zoe Falk, who ran 29 seconds faster than Rasmussen to win the district title the previous week, on Saturday and also finished well ahead of Scappoose’s Tia Carnahan, whom she’d never beaten before.
“This week she had people to run with,” Snow said of Rasmussen. “Last week Zoe made that breakaway and Nicole was by herself for two or three miles.”
Paige Sanders was the Huskies’ second runner, finishing 43rd in 21:52.
“I was just really tired today,” she said, adding that she had been aiming for all-state recognition, which goes to the top 28 runners. “I didn’t really do that well.”
But, Sanders said, considering that the Sweet Home girls didn’t look like they had a chance to even make state early in the season when Rasmussen was living in North Dakota, it was a positive to be in the meet.
“Just being here was good,” she said.
Sierra Swanson was 79th, in 23:45, Hailey Hummer was right behind her in 80th (23:46) and Candalynn Johnson was 105th (30:14) to round out the Huskies’ scoring.
“I was really excited that we got to come to this meet,” said Swanson, a freshman.
She said the difference between other meets the Huskies have been in was the competition.
“You definitely have a lot of people that you can pass in it,” she said of the race. “In district you don’t have a lot of people that you can pass – big spaces. There’s more motivation here.
“I did not break my PR, which I was hoping to do, but I know it’s a tough course. But for most part, think I did OK.”
Snow said he was “pleasantly surprised” by the girls’ performance.
“I was hoping the girls team wouldn’t finish last,” he said. “I didn’t look real close at the other teams, I just knew we weren’t a real strong team.”
The girls individual title went to Katy Potter of Siuslaw, who outran fellow seniors Sierra Brown of Hidden Valley and two-time defending champion Alisha Luna of Klamath Union to win the title after placing third behind Luna and Brown last year.
La Salle won the team title with 54 points, followed by Klamath Union (70), Molalla (76) and Scappoose (175) on the awards stand. Sisters was seventh with 194 points.
On the boys side, Siuslaw’s Matthew Campbell finished first in 15:49 to lead a 1-2-5-9-17 sequence by the Vikings to win the team title with 29 points, ahead of North Valley (52), La Salle (93) and Hidden Valley (122). Sisters was ninth (240) and La Pine was 14th (287).
Hiett, who finished 28th last year at state in 17:22, stayed just behind the front pack of runners for much of the race, pacing primarily off of Sisters’ Brandon Pollard, whom he beat for this year’s district championship.
“The rivalry between Brandon Pollard and I is really great,” Hiett said. “I was afraid he was right behind me the whole time or someone else was coming. I just really gutted it out in that last 400. And it paid off. I wanted top 10 and got eighth. My freshman year, I ran just to run at state. Here I ran to achieve something and see what I could do.”
Hiett said his biggest progress this year was disciplining himself early in the race.
“Not going out of chute so fast, trying to keep calm,” he said. “I think I did a really good job of that here at state and at districts. I run a lot smarter, faster races when I do that. Now I’ve got a feel for what it should be like.”
Snow noted that both Hiett and Rasmussen achieved the goals they’d set.
“Our goal for Jakob was to go down there and run the same type of race as he did last week and he did. With Nicole, our goal was top 20 and she was 12th, with an improvement form her district time, which was pretty impressive given the course conditions.
“There were some milestones reached there, some goals reached.”
Girls Team Scores: (1) La Salle 54; (2) Klamath Union 70; (3) Molalla 76; (4) Scappoose 175; (5) Siuslaw 184; (6) Phoenix 191; (7) Sisters 194; (8) Cascade 214; (9) Stayton 235; (10) Crook County 240; (11) Yamhill-Carlton 261; (12) Sweet Home 277; (13) Sutherlin 283; (14) Ridgeview 292.
Top 10 and Sky-Em League Finishers
(1) Katy Potter (Siuslaw) 18:56; (2) Sierra Brown (Hidden Valley) 19:04; (3) Alisha Luna (Klamath Union) 19:29; (4) Nevina DeLuca (Phoenix) 19:45; (5) Amanda Welch (La Grande) 19:46; (6) Carly Veasy (La Salle) 19:49; (7) Charlie Davidson (Scappose) 19:57; (8) Emily Bever (Molalla) 19:58; (9) Christina Tyson (Klamath Union) 19:58; (10) Dakota Steen (Ridgeview) 19:59; (12) Nicole Rasmussen (SH) 20:16; (21) Zoe Falk (Sisters) 20:53; (24) Breanna Wright (Cottage Grove) 20:59; (41) Macadia Calavan (Sisters) 21:39; (43) Paige Sanders (SH) 21:52; (54) Mary Stewart (Sisters) 22:13; (55) Natalie Marshall (Sisters) 22:13; (65) Madison Boettner (Sisters) 22:49; (71) Katie Stewart (Sisters) 23:25; (79) Sierra Swanson (SH) 23:45; (80) Hailey Hummer (SH) 23:46; (94) Aria Blumm (Sisters) 25:11; (105) Candalynn Johnson (SH) 30:14; (106) Tashana Mithen 30:54.
Boys Team Scores: (1) Siuslaw 29; (2) North Valley 52; (3) La Salle 93; (4) Hidden Valley 122; (5) Scappoose 198; (6) Philomath 211; (7) North Bend 223; (8) Astoria 226; (9) Sisters 240; (10) Newport 240; (11) Baker 255; (12) Crook County 262; (13) Molalla 280; (14) La Pine 287.
Top 10 and Sky-Em League Finishers
(1) Matthew Campbell (Siuslaw) 15:49; (2) Mitchell Butler (Siuslaw) 15:49; (3) Jonathan Cornish (North Valley)16:02; (4) David Cornish (North Valley) 16:02; (5) Mack Marbas (Siuslaw)16:09; (6) Brett Willyard (Seaside)16:09; (7) Pake Benthin (Molalla) 16:34; (8) Jakob Hiett (SH) 16:40; (9) Hayden Schaffner (Siuslaw) 16:44; (10) Will Thompson (La Salle) 16:44; (14) Brandon Pollard (Sisters) 16:47; (44) Nick Clark (La Pine) 17:55; (53) Austin Smith (La Pine) 18:07; (57) Dyut Fetrow (Sisters) 18:18; (61) Ian Baldessari (Sisters) 18:21; (65) Izaak Kanzig (Sisters) 18:33; (71) Taylor Ogle (La Pine) 18:43; (73) Tyress TurnsPlenty (La Pine) 18:47; (74) Devon Calvin (Sisters) 18:50; (79) Shea Krevi (Sisters) 18:59; (80) Niico Haddad (La Pine) 18:59; (81) Gabriel Rice (Sisters) 18:59; (83) Thorin Wilson (La Pine) 19:07; (89) Gavin Boen (La Pine) 19:29.