Scott Swanson
There wasn’t a lot of drama for Jakob Hiett and Nicole Rasmussen Saturday at the OSAA 4A state cross-country championships held at Lane Community College, as much as there was a pretty clear-cut task at hand.
Hiett, a junior, and Rasmussen, a senior, had been in every state race since their freshman years and they knew what they had to do.
They did it, Coach Billy Snow said.
Hiett finished third, as the top junior, behind Siuslaw seniors Mitchell Butler and Mack Marbas, in 16:10 and Rasmussen set a personal all-time best, running 19:18 to finish sixth.
“We were aiming for a top-five finish for Jakob and top-10 for Nicole. We got that.”
Despite the fast start, Siuslaw finished second in the boys team scoring, with 89 points behind La Salle (54) and ahead of Phoenix (126) and Marshfield (135). Philomath was sixth (151), Sisters seventh (205) and Sweet Home was 13th (285).
Molalla put three of its runners in the top 10 and packed the rest in close behind to finish with 50 points in the girls competition, and the first-place trophy. Phoenix was second (71), followed by Siuslaw (119), Philomath (133) and Sisters (164), with Sweet Home 11th (281) out of 14 teams.
Hiett ran with the two Siuslaw runners for two-thirds of the boys race, before they pulled away in the last mile.
“I was supposed to go out fast, so I went out fast,” he said. “I’m very happy today. Top three was the goal, and three is what I got. So I’m very pleased.
“They were the only two juniors to beat me last year, and the rest of the guys ahead of me were seniors. So we basically just did a copy-paste from last year. Just less seniors.
“So next year, we’ll have a good go of it, I’m sure. I’ll probably just have same plan: Go out hard and keep going hard.”
Ian Wingo was 56th, in 18:15, with freshman Issac Justham not far behind in 67th, running 18:33 and Chase Hutchins 75th in 18:52. Sweet Home’s final scorer was Stephen Bishop in 84th (19:40), with Robert Gourley (86th, 19:41) and Joseph Rasmussen 91st (20:48).
For all but Hiett, this was the first state meet for the boys.
“It’s fun, but it’s hard because everyone goes out fast because it’s the state meet,” Wingo said. “You go out fast and it kind of carries you a little bit. Towards end of the race when everyone get spaced out, that’s when it becomes a mental battle because there’s no one to carry you any more and you’re tired. I gave it my all.
I was hoping to get 17s, but what happens happens.”
Justham, who finished nine seconds slower than his personal best for 5,000 meters, set on the much faster and flatter Country Fair course two weeks previously, said he was happy the downpour that came immediately before the 4A girls race stopped and the sun was out by the time the boys ran. He said he was running comfortably behind Wingo when Assistant Coach Andrew Allen, known as “Keebler” to the team, told him it was time to pick it up.
“Keebs said I had to pick up seven more positions, so I sprinted 100 meters and picked off three guys. Then I stayed with a guy from Philomath for about half mile, then sprinted on the track and got four more guys. It was fun. I did it faster than I thought it would.
Rasmussen’s time was the fastest, by 13 seconds, she’d ever run 5,000 meters – the only actual PR on the team.
“It felt good,” she said, noting that last year she was under-trained after a move to and then back from North Dakota that got her to Sweet Home just in time to run three quick races before state.
“I had a mental runner block last year, where I didn’t think I could go any faster,” she said. “Then this year I started getting times that I got my sophomore year and I started getting better. This year was kind of intense.”
After placing second to Cottage Grove’s Brianna in the district meet on Oct. 24, Rasmussen said she “didn’t handle it too well.”
“I beat myself up about it all week and then got tired of feeling sorry for myself, so I decided that today I was going t o beat her – do whatever I had to to make sure she didn’t beat me. I ended up getting sixth place. It was kind of cool seeing what I could do, getting past that mental block.”
Marshfield’s Shayleen Crook became the school’s third cross-country champion and its first girls titlist in history, winning 18:28. Marshfield’s first state champion was legendary runner Steve Prefontaine.
For the Sweet Home girls, Sierra Swanson was second in 57th (22:33), with fellow sophomore Kayleen Keeney right behind in 62nd, running 22:45, followed by Natasha Rasmussen in 65th (22:57).
“Last week I was sick (at the district championship), so I was really proud of this week because I really pushed it. I went way faster,” said Swanson, who, along with Keeney, came within seconds of also posting PRs. “I was really excited.”
Freshman Dana Hiett, who has been running with the other three in a tight pack in recent races, had to step out of the race midway through because of illness, which brought up Maria Daniels as the Huskies’ fifth runner, in 92nd place (27:30).
“It’s really sad that she dropped out,” Swanson said of Hiett. “But I’m sure she will be really good next year. I was really proud of Kayleen that she stayed with me.”
Keeney, for whom this was her first year of cross-country and has cut three minutes off her fast-course 5K times since the beginning of September, said Hiett’s difficulties motivated her on Saturday.
“I was running really fast, keeping up with Sierra, and Dana dropped out, and so I was like ‘I have to run really fast to get up there,’” she said. “Today’s race was a good race.”
Snow agreed. “Kayleen was just off her PR from Elmira, which is flat and was on a nice day, so the ground was warm and hard (when she set that record). She had a great run today.”
Daniels, a sophomore in her second year of running, also has improved dramatically as the Huskies’ sixth runner. She said her success is a result of a decision to bear down.
“At the beginning of the season I made up my mind to try really hard and get lot better this year. I did a lot better.
“I think our team did really well this year. We made it to state, which was really nice.”
Mami Sakamoto was Sweet Home’s sixth runner, behind Daniels in 93rd (28:59).
Even without Hiett, who had finished ahead of Swanson in the Huskies’ last two races, they finished 11th out of 14 teams, one spot out of the top 10, which was their goal.
The Huskies’ main problem was one that has dogged them since the start of the season: thin numbers that leaving practically zero margin for injury or illness, and which make it difficult to compete effectively against teams such as Philomath and Sisters, which have generally have twice or three times the runners Sweet Home does. This year Sisters had 24 boys and 20 girls on its roster, while Philomath had 19 boys and 14 girls. Sweet Home had 11 boys and eight girls who competed in at least one race this season.
“We’ve got to find some more bodies,” Snow said. “We’ve got to replace Nicole. Today was one of those days where depth pays off,” he said, referring to Dana Hiett’s inability to finish. “Because if we’d had somebody, another girl who could be up in that group, one dropping out doesn’t make a big difference. Depth is always huge.
“It was kind of the same way on the guys’ side. We had three seniors who ran today. We’ve got to replace them.”
In the 1A/2A/3A championships, East Linn Christian’s boys, were fourth. Donny Arndt of Sweet Home was 66th in 18:39 and freshman Wesley Anderson, also of Sweet Home, was 93rd in 20:14 for the Eagles. Sophomore Sara Helfrich of Sweet Home finished 47th, in 21:59, for the Eagle girls, who were eighth as a team.