Senior McKenzie Miller, junior Ryker Burr, sophomore Emma Whitton and freshman Elijah Rodriguez were named Outstanding Runners for the cross-country team at its awards banquet Tuesday, Nov. 11.
Coach Dave Martin opened the awards ceremony by telling the crowd of about 100 people in the high school cafeteria that “I’ve been coaching since 1980, and this may be the funnest high school team I’ve ever had.
“It was just such a joy, day in and day out, to be with everybody on this team. The team chemistry was awesome.”
The Huskies are also talented – and dedicated, he noted, observing that when his three state qualifiers – Miller, Whitton and Burr – arrived to continue workouts on the Monday following the Nov. 1 district championships, literally half of the 28 team members showed up to run, even though they didn’t have to.
Martin told the athletes that he’s had other talented teams, but “other kids had talent, but they didn’t have your heart, they didn’t have your love of running.”
“This team is phenomenal,” he said to the crowd. “I don’t think you guys realize how good you are.”
Also, he noted, the Huskies could have 25 of their 28 runners back because they are losing only seniors Miller, Delanie Pratt and Anabelle Morris to graduation.
Sweet Home’s girls finished third at districts without their No. 3 runner, Cassie Spencer, and were in consideration for a wildcard berth at state
Those 25 include seven freshman girls and four freshman boys, two sophomore girls and six sophomore boys, and three junior boys and three girls.
Martin reported that three of those boys ran faster than the 17:57 Burr posted last year as the team’s No. 1 runner, and eight were faster than last year’s No. 4 runner. The average time of the 13 boys on the team this year was 19:32. Last year’s No. 3 boy ran 19:31. Ten boys ran faster than the No. 5 runner on last year’s varsity, he said.
On the girls side, seven runners were faster this year than last year’s No. 3 runner and 12 ran faster than last year’s No. 7 runner. The average time of the top seven girls this year was 22:09.
Plus, the depth of the program allowed Sweet Home to field the only girls JV complete (scoring) team at the district championships.
“We are a good team and we are young,” Martin said. “We have the best JV team I’ve had in a long, long time. Any one of our boys would have been on varsity three years ago and the top 10 girls would have been on varsity.”
Martin said the team voted on the awards and coaches pretty much went along with their choices.
Of the three state qualifiers, Whitton placed seventh and Miler 14th in the girls championship race, and Burr 34th in the boys. Rodriguez was included among the Outstanding Runners because he finished ninth in the district championships, two spots out of qualifying for state, in a personal best of 17:32.1, the fourth-fastest time for a freshman in Sweet Home history and among the top 50 fastest times for 5K in school history.
“He’s one of the best freshmen I’ve ever seen,” Martin said. “State-caliber running – that’s what we’re striving to develop. Next year I hope to have seven people that could be outstanding boy or girl.”
Most Improved for the girls went to sophomore Madison Ciullo, who improved from 26:29 to a PR of 23:48 at the district meet, and freshman Lexi Lee, who ran 33:37 at the beginning of the season and finished with a PR of 28:12.
For the boys, honorees were sophomores Louis Kistner and Noah Strawn, both of whom improved by about 4½ minutes over the course of the season.
Most Inspirational went to Burr, who was voted “overwhelmingly” for the honor by teammates for the second straight year.
Martin noted that Burr is aiming for the school record – “that’s the mentality of the people on this team. They set high goals.”
Toughest Runner went to Miller “without a question” and to sophomore Acen Webber, “who runs tough every time,” Martin said in presenting the awards.
He also announced team captains for the 2026 season: Burr and fellow junior Conner Spencer for the boys, and freshman Cassie Spencer for next year’s girls team, whom Martin described as “the emotional control of the team” who brings “heart, strength and toughness” to the Huskies. Spencer ran 21:20 this year, the 18th-fastest time in school history, after moving to cross-country from the 400 and 800 in track.
The sole fourth-year letter went to Miller, whom Martin introduced as “one of the toughest runners I’ve ever had. She’s a great runner, a great human being.”
Third-year letter winners were the junior boys, Burr and Conner Spencer, whom Martin described as “the backbone of the team.”
Second-year letters went to five sophomores who returned from their freshman season: Wes Goff, Kistner, Evan Knight – who, Martin said, battled to break 18 minutes and did so at the district meet, Webber, and Whitton and junior Noelle Helfrich on the girls side. Kistner, he noted, ran 20:59 last year and decided to train through the winter, running the fastest 1500 time on the team in track and then clocking 18:!3 this season.
“That’s what consistency and hard work does for you,” Martin said.
First-year letter winners for the girls were Ciullo, for whom this was her first season of cross-country, and freshmen Cassie Spencer, Pyper Hall and Marian Helfrich.
“These young ladies run together all the time and that helps them get better,” Martin said.
For the boys, first-year letters went to Hudson Ogden, Noah Strawn and Rodriguez.
Also recognized were junior varsity runners Zoie Allison, Navaeh Mize, Annabelle Morris, McKenzie Ohlheiser, Delanie Pratt Miu Simmons and Kali Vogel for the girls, and Eli Adams, Ryder Farris and Bentley Uhlry for the boys. Both Simmons, a junior who doubled with soccer but ran with the team in the mornings, and Uhlry, a freshman, improved their times progressively in every race they ran during the season.
Booster Club President Karyn Hartsook also congratulated the team on ____OSAA All-Academic________ and presented T-shirts to 17 team members who maintained #### or above during the season. Martin noted that seven of the 11 who weren’t on the T-shirt list are home-schooled, and that if they had been eligible, many of them would have been on the list as well.
Martin also introduced his junior high/club runners: eighth-grader Zander Davis, fifth-grader Walker Farris, eighth-grader Wiley Farris, sixth-grader Brady Goff, seventh-grader Langston Lane, and seventh-grader Jackson Sands for the boys, and eighth-grader Emma Daivs and sixth-grader Violet Devlin for the girls.
Martin explained the importance of the junior program, citing the example of Philomath’s Cassidy Smart, a sophomore who won this year’s high school district title. She has eight years of running experience, he noted. All of last year’s junior high runners are freshmen on this year’s high school squad but new young runners joined the program, most of them running throughout the summer with the high-schoolers before OSAA rules forced the teams into separate workouts.
“This is a completely new team, and I’m encouraged by where we are at, what we have accomplished,” Martin said.