The Husky boys cross country squad finished first running in the junior varsity race Thursday at Cascade.
“We basically stomped the field,” Coach Wayne Spinney said. The Huskies scored 33 points in the race to win. Runners will start moving to varsity this week.
Leading the Huskies was Aaron Lovik, setting a PR at 10:31 and finishing second.
Kyle Temple followed him in at fifth, 10:43. Robert McGarry finished in 11:00 at sixth place. Tyler Kistner set a PR at 11:02 at seventh place. Chris Lovely finished 13th, 11:15, to round out scoring positions.
Sam Crain finished 16:02, and Shant Little finished 13:08.
John Lovik is recovering from an illness and did not run. Richard Westvik and Chris Burford did not run.
“It’s the first competition we’ve run as a team,” Coach Spinney said. “I was happy with Kyle and Tyler for competing for the first time.”
Kistner competed well in his first race for the Huskies, Coach Spinney said. He was returning to the sport after knee surgery last year.
“What Aaron is dealing with now is running with people he was over a minute behind last year at this time,” Coach Spinney said. “His ability to compete with better runners will be shown over the next two or three weeks.”
All of that, Coach Spinney said, comes from his hard work running over the summer.
Temple and Lovik were running together between the first half mile and three-quarter mile when the first-place runner started breaking away. That runner was top five in state last year at the 2A level. Temple tried to go after him.
A little past the mile Mark, Lovik caught up to Temple and kept after the top spot, Coach Spinney said. Temple “ran out of gas.”
“It’s neat to see Kyle competing,” Coach Spinney said. With his competitiveness, Temple’s game is only a matter of training.
Megan Snow was the only girl running varsity. She was off a little and finished 45th, 25:48.
Three girls set PRs on junior varsity. Kim Lovik finished ninth, 14:20. Dianne Kennelly finished 33rd, 16:02. Sonia Arroyo finished 25th, 15:37.
Anne Helfrich was playing soccer and did not run.
“I’m happy with how everybody’s running,” Coach Spinney said.
Sisters won both the girls and boys varsity races. Stayton was second in the boys race. Cascade was second in the girls race. In each race, the contest came down to those two teams.
Other teams include Nestucca, Scappoose, Regis, North Marion and Neah-Ka-Nie.