Sweet Home’s young cross-country team continues to improve, as nearly all the Husky runners bettered their times Saturday, Sept. 10, at the Stayton Invitational, held at Stayton Middle School’s nature trail complex.
“We’re getting better,” Coach Dave Martin said.
All of the Husky boys ran the 3,000-meter junior varsity race, p[lacing first ahead of Stayton, 19-36, as junior Ethan Delibertis was first, for the second week in a row, covering the 3000-meter course in 12:25.
Freshman Jim Morgan, in his first cross-country race, was second in 12:32. They were followed by Adrian Kast, fourth in 13:25, Mason Lopez, 10th in 15:01, Will Jewell, 16th in 15:28; and Lucas Thompson, 23rd in 25:03.
In the girls varsity race, a 5,000-meter distance, junior Rylee Markell, Sweet Home’s only entrant in the 36-runner field, was 12th, running 24:38.
In the girls JV race, Sweet Home freshman McKenzie Miller was the winner, running 13:17. Amelia Sullens was fourth, in 15:18. Peyton Markell finished 11th, in 15:55, ahead of Meeja Bitter, who was 12th 15:59.
“This was the first time we’ve had complete teams,” Martin said, referencing the boys’ win. He noted that if the girls had had all their runners in the JV race, they would have had the five runners necessary to score.
He said at least one runner didn’t compete for Sweet Home due to air quality concerns, though he said conditions were better in Stayton than in Sweet Home Saturday.
The Stayton course, “is tough. It’s not as wide open as the Cascade one (Sweet Home competed on the previous week). It was tougher for our kids.”
Still, he noted, most of Sweet Home’s runners, all but two of whom are new to cross-country and several of which are doubling with soccer, improved their Cascade times by anywhere from 30 seconds to a minute.
“Everybody just looked stronger, faster,” Martin said.
“Ethan didn’t have as good a time as he did (at Cascade), but I think part of it was that Ethan and Jim were near the front.”
He noted that at Cascade Delibertis, who is a rookie runner, was able to pace off a Valley Catholic runner “who had a better idea of pace.”
Morgan, he said, has made an impact after joining the team.
“He looked pretty strong. Jim is tough. All the kids were watching him.”
The boys and girls competed in the same race at the JV level and Miller took off with her teammates iat the front.
“McKenzie surprised me because she was, maybe, three or four yards behind Ethan and Jim,” Martin said. “She went out hard and I was, like, OK, let’s see what happens.”
Miller hung in there, he said. She finished fourth overall in the race.
“I think she has a lot of potential,” Martin said. “She’s going to be good.”
At this point in the season, most of the JV races will move up to the 5000-meter distance. Martin, who has been bringing his inexperienced runners along slowly as they built their conditioning, said they are making progress.
“We’re making progress every week,” he said. “The kids are learning how to run more mileage, how to pace. I think all the boys came out feeling better.”
Next up for Sweet Home is the Northwest Classic, which will be held Saturday, Sept. 17, at Lane Community College.
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