For the first time in over a decade, Sweet Home has no qualifiers for the state cross-country championships – individual or team – after the Huskies placed fourth on the boys side and fifth on the girls at the Sky-Em District Championships Wednesday, Oct. 20, at Lane Community College.
Sisters continued its string of district titles, the Outlaw boys winning by a point over Elmira, 44-45 and the girls handily beating Junction City 23-54. Under OSAA cross-country rules, the top two teams and any individuals in the top five not already on those teams qualify for state.
The Sweet Home boys scored 102 points, behind Junction City (63) and ahead of Cottage Grove (117) and Sutherlin (164). The girls scored 125 points, behind Sutherlin (94) and Cottage Grove (106) and ahead of Elmira (129).
Coach Andrew “Keebler” Allen said the league has gotten to the point that a team isn’t competitive if it doesn’t train all summer. Due to various circumstances, the Huskies came up short in summer mileage as a team and didn’t have the depth, particularly on the girls side, to be a threat for another trip to state.
“The guys had a good race,” Allen said. “I wasn’t disappointed. With the conference this year, the hard part of reality was they got to see how teams that train all summer long can run.”
Allen said he believes Sisters and Elmira’s boys teams have a shot at the top four at state “and I’d put Junction City eighth or ninth in the state, and they didn’t even qualify.”
He noted that the district meet usually involves 140-some runners. This year it was just shy of 200.
“We dropped time through the season but we just didn’t have the base,” he said. “The kids who are focused on improving knew that.”
Tony Hooks of Sisters won the boys league title, in 16:34.9, and Sophie Borders of Sisters was the girls champion, in 20:41.9.
The top individual finisher for Sweet Home was junior Trey Reed, who was 10th in a field of 40 runners in 18:13.2. Sierra Swanson was the Husky girls’ top finisher, 15th out of 42 runners, in 23:04.9.
“Trey’s race was good, but not great,” Coach Andrew “Keebler” Allen said, noting that Reed missed more than half the summer’s training with a non-running-related leg injury. “His weakest spot is base. Last year he had a lot more training than he did this summer. Either you excel because you have base or you don’t. Most of our runners are base runners. They need a lot of base to excel.”
Tanner Sayers was second in for Sweet Home’s boys, 17th in 19:02.6, followed by Julian Hesberg, 19th in 19:06.4; Noah Dinsfriend, 26th in 19:57.4; Ricky Yunke, 30th in 19:57.4; Noah Taraski, 32nd in 20:13.9, and Kobe Olson, 35th in 20:41.4.
Immediately behind Swanson on the girls side, in 17th, was Bethany Gingerich in 23:19.5.
“Sierra’s finish was the high note, with the race she had, considering she had knee surgery at beginning of the summer,” Allen said. “She missed most of training. To run how she did, with consistent improvement throughout the season, she pushed Bethany, then left Bethany. That was one last hurrah for her cross-country career.”
Kayleen Keeney was 25th in 24:18.9; Dana Hiett, 29th in 25:11.0; Maria Daniels, 39th in 27:00.3; Allison Wickline, 41st in 31:52.5; and Faith Black, 42nd in 32:27.1.
“Kayleen will play basketball, but she will train this winter so she can be competitive in track,” Allen said. “Dana had a season PR and she kind of looked like her old self. Maria has been consistent all season.”
He said he was particularly appreciative of Wickline’s effort, after she had to sit out for nearly half the season with an injury from soccer.
“Allison trained all summer and was real excited about doubling up,” Allen said. “I’m not expecting her to return and the fact that she came out and gave it her all and ran with a knee brace – she did it for us.”
Varsity overall gave me everyt ounec eof effort they could have individually.
In the boys JV race, Cameron Taber was the first finisher for Sweet Home, 13th in 21:03.3, a personal best of nearly 45 seconds for him for 5000 meters, on a course that was generally about 30 seconds slower than the Country Fair at Elmira, which most of the Huskies and other runners in the district field ran season- or lifetime bests on a week before. The Huskies’ Christian Baham also had a big PR, by 30 seconds, to run 27:38.
“Christian Baham had a great PR in that one,” Allen said. “Cameron and Christian had great races.”
He said the Huskies ran “great times,” considering most did not train sufficiently during the summer. “Other than Cameron and Tanner, they showed it. Tanner was one of our top runners.”