Sweet Home’s boys cross-country team took the team title at the 16-team Harrier’s Challenge Thursday, Sept. 27, at Schwartz Park in Cottage Grove, while the girls placed third.
“I thought the kids competed well,” Coach Billy Snow said. “It’s knd of funny – I was telling the kids afterwards that a lot of them were complaining that they didn’t feel good, didn’t want to run. But they still ran well despite that. I was happy with the result.”
The double-loop course included a steep climb up the dam at Dorena Lake, which forced many of the runners to walk, he said.
Both teams were missing some key runners, which made their finishes more significant.
The boys ran without regular varsity competitors Brinden Sanders, Dallin Holden and Jayce Calhoon.
But behind Ramiro Santana’s fifth place finish (out of 92 runners) in 18:37, they scored 52 points, far ahead of second-place Marshfield (103). Rounding out the top five in the varsity were Division 2 powerhouse Oakridge (107); Cottage Grove (132) and North Eugene (147). Both Marshfield and North Eugene are Division 5 teams.
For the Huskies, Robert Callagan was 10th in 19:14, followed by Byron Sanders (14th, 19:30), Land Florek (15th, 19:30) and Josh Rice (16th, 19:34), which sealed the win for Sweet Home. Dustin Collman was 26th (20:26) and Nikki Smith was 34th (21:04).
“The guys doing what they did, missing three of their top guys, was pretty impressive,” Snow said.
In the girls varsity race, Amanda Basham
Max Long of Oakridge was first in the boys race (16:52), followed Jared Bassett of Marshfield (17:02), Tom Settlemeyer of Cottage Grove (17:34, Tom McKay of Sutherland (18:28) and Santana.
Amanda Basham was the top finisher for the varsity girls, taking fifth in the 70-runner field as Sutherland/Oakland’s Chelsea Spencer (21:16) and Alex Johnson (21:38) finished 1-2, followed by Emily James of Douglas (21:47, Tori Scott of Marshfield and Basham (22:15).
Rounding out the top five for the Huskies were freshmen Olivia Johnson (23:43) and Carissa Swanson (23:45) in 11th and 12th, sophomore Jill Mahler in 31st (26:11) and freshman Jenna Kistner in 41st ( 27:42).
It was Kistner’s first varsity race and first at the 5,000-meter distance, Snow said.
Sutherland/Oakland won the team competition with 38 points, followed by Marshfield (60), Sweet Home (76), Cottage Grove (92) and Elmira (109).
Michael Simmonds was the top finisher for the boys in the junior varsity 5000-meter race, running 23:01 for fifth place out of 37 runners. Chris Thompson was 10th (24:02), David Rinehart 11th (24:17), Alex Whitlow 15th (24:34) and Conner Cunha 35th (31:13).
Sweet Home did not field a complete girls JV team. Natasha Perry was first for the Huskies, running sixth out of 19 runners (31:04), Taylor Rodgers was eighth (31:18) and Louise Wilcox 18th (37:48).
The Huskies are running at the Junction City Richardson Park Invitational on Tuesday, Oct. 2, and on Saturday, Oct. 6, will travel to the Paul Mariman Invitational at Philomath High School where they will get a taste of the course that will be used for this year’s District Championships. Races start at 1:15 p.m. Saturday.