Sweet Home’s girls placed fifth overall and the boys placed eighth in the huge 84-team Three Course Challenge cross-country meet at Camp Rilea, north of Seaside Saturday.
Though many of the Huskies were nursing aches and pains, they ran well, Coach Billy Snow said.
“My goal for those kids is to compete and have fun doing it and not get hurt,” Snow said.
The meet consists of three courses of lengths varying from a standard 5,000 meters to 6,000 meters, and course difficulty increasing with the distance. Runners draw to determine what race they compete in.
The 84 teams included 38 from Washington, two from California and 42 from Oregon.
The terrain on the Oregon National Guard base is mostly sandy hills, with a knee-deep mud hole halfway through the moderate and difficult courses to spice things up.
“Even our kids who were walking wounded were able to do it without getting hurt,” Snow said. One runner, Carissa Swanson, went down in traffic on a hill but suffered no harm other than losing about 25 places.
“I’m happier about his than I was about Tadmor,” Snow said Monday, despite the fact that many of his runners were nursing colds. “We have a lot of kids sick right now but nobody hurt.”
He noted that Erin Rose and Kimber Swanson, both beginning runners and both nursing sore legs, “stepped up” to give the Huskies competitive points in the easy race.
Top finisher for the girls was Olivia Johnson, who finished 15th in the girls moderate 5,500-meter race. Nick Hall was the top Husky boys finisher, taking 29th in the boys moderate race.
The Huskies travel to Cottage Grove Thursday, where they will run a 5,000-meter course in and around Schwarz Park, east of the city, including a trip up the face of the dam at Dorena Lake.
Boys 5,000 Meters Easy Top 5 and Sweet Home finishers (406 finishers)
(1) Todd Jackson (Elma, Wash.) 15:33; (2) Benjamin Condrea (Crescent Valley) 16:30; (3) Meron Simon (Federal Way, Wash.) 16:34; (4) Yonny Castillo (Hood River Valley) 16:35; (5) Travis Neuman (Summit) 16:44; (110) Chris Thompson 19:40; (134) Kyle Hummer 20:01; (147) Casey Keys 20:12; (203) Jacob Miner 21:30; (233) James Myers 22:02; (399) Conner Cunha 30:33; (406) Mitchell Garcia 34:26.
Boys 5,500 Meters Moderate Top 5 and Sweet Home finishers
(473 finishers)
(1) Parker Bennett (Sisters) 19:57; (2) Ben Foubert (Barlow) 20:31; (3) Pat Madden (Summit) 20:37; (4) Danny Lunder (Kentwood, Wash.) 21:09; (5) Max Heninger (Lakeridge) 21:11; (29) Nick Hall 22:28; (116) Jake Comstock 24:47; (199) Andrew Jiles 26:13; (230) Brett King 26:41; (241) Nene Mauer 26:50.
Boys 6,000 Meters Hard Top 5 and Sweet Home finishers (500 finishers)
(1) Tyler King (Oak Harbor) 22:12; (2) Taylor Steele (Sisters) 22:14; (3) Kyle Boe (Columbia River, Wash.) 22:23; (4) Brian Piette (Columbia River, Wash.) 22:25; (5) Kevin Massimino (Kentwood, Wash.) 22:28; (111) Byron Sanders 25:09; (198) Avery Shamek 26:42; (199) Lorenzo Virgen 26:42; (269) Daniel Danforth 27:41; (319) Anson Davis 28:42; (429) David Rinehart 31:31.
Girls 5,000 Meters Easy Top 5 and Sweet Home finishers (327 finishers)
(1) Sarah Bobbe (Columbia River, Wash.) 19:12; (2) Kellie Schueler (Summit) 19:30; (3) Alexia Martin (Kent Meridian, Wash.) 19:36; (4) Meagan Governor (La Center, Wash.) 19:45; (5) Kira Kelly (Summit) 20:11; (194) Erin Rose 27:59; (230) Kimber Swanson 29:22.
Girls 5,500 Meters Moderate Top 5 and Sweet Home finishers
(370 finishers)
(1) Adrianna Royal (Oak Harbor, Wash.) 24:33; (2) Kailey Ulland (Kentwood, Wash.) 24:40; (3) Megan Fristoe (Summit) 24:55; (4) Katelyn Steen (Eastlake, Wash.) 25:13; (5) Chantalle Blundell (Hockinson, Wash.) 25:28; (15) Olivia Johnson 26:26; (40) Carissa Swanson 27:41; (179) Natasha Perry 32:45; (336) Taylar Rodgers 38:54.
Girls 6,000 Meters Hard Top 5 and Sweet Home finishers (264 finishers)
(1) Allison Clark (Columbia River, Wash.) 25:16; (2) Allison Cutting (Sequim, Wash.) 25:46; (3) Holly Meler (Columbia River, Wash.) 25:57; (4) Kelly O’Neill (Lakeridge) 26:01; (5) Taylor Kartes (Todd Beamer, Wash.) 26:37; (72) Caroline Amendola 30:09; (139) Paige Sanders 32:41; (188) Liz Egbert 34:54.
Tadmor Invitational
Sweet Home’s cross-country teams didn’t seem to be running on all cylinders Tuesday, Sept. 22, in their own invitational at Camp Tadmor.
League rival Philomath, on the other hand, was humming.
The Warriors won the boys varsity and girls and boys junior varsity races, and the varsity girls took second, while the best Sweet Home could manage was a second place in the boys JV race.
“What surprised me was that after we packed it in the week before, we didn’t on Tuesday,” Coach Billy Snow said. “If we’re going to have a bad race, we’d better have it early.”
Philomath’s boys, led by Jeff Schreiner-McGraw’s second-place finish in the varsity 5,000-meter race (17:58.62), scored 40 points for the win, with Stayton second (58) and Sweet Home third (60), followed by Cascade (84), Creswell 118), Madras (162), Taft (183) and Junction City (202). Corbin Helt of Creswell ran 17:22.15 to win by half a minute. The varsity course featured the standard steep hill a mile into the race, along with two very soggy mud bogs that the runners had to negotiate, which brought the times down considerably.
Nick Hall was the top finisher for Sweet Home, in sixth (19:16.44). The Huskies, who were missing Kyle Hummer, were unable to get the grouping they delivered a week before in winning at Lebanon, finishing 6-13-14-17-19-27 to Philomath’s
2-5-8-15-16-32. Neither team fielded a seventh runner.
“We didn’t pack it in,” Snow said. “We were too spread out. Philomath packed it in. That’s the difference.”
In the girls varsity race, it was a similar situation.
Annette Marinello won the race for Philomath in 20:57.10, followed by Sweet Home’s Olivia Johnson in 22:27.88, Alexis Mitzel of Cascade in third (22:41.94) and Carissa Swanson of Sweet Home fourth in 23:13.00. Cascade won the team title by a point over Philomath, 37 to 38, as both teams placed all five of their scoring runners ahead of Sweet Home’s third runner, Caroline Amendola, who was 18th in 25:36.40.
Cascade finished 3-5-8-10-15-20-27 while Philomath was 1-6-7-12-17 to the Huskies’ 2-4-18-22-24-25 for 60 points (adjusted for finishers from incomplete teams who didn’t count in the points totals).
“The first two did what they were supposed to,” Snow said of his girls team. “I don’t know what happened to the rest of them.”
Jenna Kistner was fourth for the Huskies, finishing 22nd overall in 26:58.46, followed by a badly fading Paige Sanders, who was 24th (27:34.80) and Natasha Perry in 25th (28:26.90).
Philomath beat the Huskies 47-62 in the 3,000-meter junior varsity boys race as the Warriors’ Tyler Joyner finished first in 12:01.33. Sweet Home’s top finisher was Jake Comstock in fourth (12:16.23) followed closely by Daniel Danforth in fifth (12:24.08).
In the girls JV race, Hayley Foster of Philomath was first (16:00.49), with Liz Egbert finishing fourth overall (16:20.49) to lead the Huskies.
Varsity Top 10 plus Sweet Home finishers
(1) Corbin Helt (Creswell) 17:22.15; (2) Jeff Schreiner-McGraw (Philomath) 17:58.62; (3) Jeremiah Koellmann (Stayton) 18:20.21; (4) Theo Puentes (Newport) 18:24.88; (5) Boone McCoy-Crisp (Philomath) 19:13.91; (6) Nick Hall (SH) 19:16.44; (7) Ben Lippold (Cascade) 19:17.53; (8) Julio Alvarado (Philomath) 19:32.61; (9) Jeremie Edwards (Stayton) 19:48.13; (10) Tyler Dailey (Stayton) 19:49.25; (13) Avery Shamek (SH) 20:10.27; (14) Byron Sanders (SH) 20:10.53; (17) Casey Keys (SH) 20:21.88; (19) Lorenzo Virgen (SH) 20:36.47; (27) Chris Thompson (SH) 21:33.79.
Varsity Girls Top 10 plus Sweet Home finishers
(1) Annette Marinello (Philomath) 20:57.10; (2) Olivia Johnson (SH) 22:27.88; (3) Alexis Mitzel (Cascade) 22:41.94; (4) Carissa Swanson (SH) 23:13.00; (5) Ashley Kinney (Cascade) 23:32.27; (6) Audrey Hellesto (Philomath) 23:39.04; (7) Marisa Browning-Kamins (Philomath) 23:53.84; (8) Britney Soto (Cascade) 23:54.32; (9) Karlen Yallup (Madras) 24:08.75; (10) Emily Everetts (Cascade) 24:12.53; (18) Caroline Amendola (SH) 25:36.40; (22) Jenna Kistner (SH) 26:58.46; (24) Paige Sanders (SH) 27:34.80; (25) Natasha Perry (SH) 28:26.90.
Sweet Home JV Boys
(4) Jake Comstock, 12:26.23; (5) Daniel Danforth, 12:24.08; (14) Andrew Jiles, 13:16.56; (18) Jason Rice, 13:23.80; (21) Brett King, 13:50.96; (25) Anson Davis, 14:15.82; (29) David Rinehart, 14:37.67; (43) Conner Cunha, 19:59.90; (44) Mitchell Garcia, 24:47.75.
Sweet Home JV Girls
(4) Liz Egbert, 16:20.49; (11) Emily Egbert, 17:29.51; (12) Erin Rose, 17:41.27; (20) Taylar Rodgers, 19:40.25; (31) Emily Peabody, 25:34.40.