It wasn’t a record-shattering day for everybody, but some of Sweet Home’s young cross-country runners came away with personal-bests despite unseasonably warm temperatures and a crowded field at the Paul Mariman Invitational at Philomath Saturday, Oct. 8.
In the girls varsity race, Sweet Home placed seventh in a field of 12 teams, beating Newport, which was 10th.
Freshman McKenzie Miller led the Huskies with a 29th-place finish in the field of 122 runners finishing in 22:40.0.
Behind her were junior Rylee Markell, 45th in 23:38.8; Amelia Sullens, 78th in 25:30.6, a personal best of more than 30 seconds; Natiyah Walters-Koenig, 79th in 25:31.3, a personal best of nearly a minute; Peyton Markell, 87th in 26:19.8, also a personal best for her; and Meeja Bitter, 118thin 32:04.7.
Philomath sophomore Adele Beckstead ran 19:36 to win the girls race, beating Molalla freshman Anika Jenson (19:42) .
Philomath placed all five of its scorers in the top 16 to win the team title going away over Siuslaw 36-81.
Coach Dave Martin, noted that the PRs, and adding that although Miller and Rylee Markell didn’t post personal bests, they “competed well.”
“Watching McKenzie and Rylee, they were kind of at their max, just hanging on at the end of the race. I’m very content with a lot of our efforts there.”
Freshman Jim Morgan was Sweet Home’s first finisher, as junior Ethan Delibertis had to pull out of the race midway with an ankle injury.
Morgan ran a personal-best time of more than 30 seconds to finish in 21:32.4, placing 89th in a field of 149 runners. Adrian Kast was 116th in a season-best 22:59.0, followed by Vegas Mauer ,130th in 24:01 and Will Jewell, 143rd in 27:48.
Freshman Lukas Thompson ran 37:14.9 to finish 120th in the JV boys race.
Senior Jaden Owens of Cottage Grove (16:34.6) beat Philomath’s Ben Hernandez (16:39.9) and Siuslaw’s Samuel Ulrich (16:42.9) in the varsity race, but Siuslaw placed all five of its scorers in the top 24 to win the team race.
Temperatures were in the mid-80s at Philomath, making it one of the hottest Mariman Invitationals in recent memory. The course was dusty as well.
“Overall, I was pleased with this race,” Martin said.
“Our goal, going into the race, was to challenge ourselves to be more competitive with other runners from the mid-point of the race on.”
The PRs indicated that was happening, he said.
The Huskies were scheduled to run at the Clash in the Cascades, hosted by Sisters, on Thursday, Oct. 13, but Homecoming activities prompted coaches to cancel that trip, Martin said.
That gives Sweet Home literally three weeks to train and prepare for the district championships, which will also be on the same Philomath course on Saturday, Oct, 29.
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