Sweet Home hosted its first truly local cross-country meet in many years Thursday, Sept. 13, at Community Chapel, hosting 18 high school teams and 16 from middle schools.
“Overall it went really well,” Head Coach Kambria Schumacher said of the event, which included a barbecue dinner fund-raiser that was well-attended. “A lot of the coaches I talked to were happy and even some athletes told me they enjoyed the course.”
It also included three area 5A schools – Lebanon, South Albany and Corvallis, as well as Philomath, Sisters and Newport from the Huskies’ own Oregon West conference.
Schumacher said she was surprised by the turnout for the inaugural event, particularly since there were “a whole bunch of races” during the week.
Was surprised to ha etha mney teams sign up, come out.
Whole bunch of races same week. Pretty much all of them came.
Schumacher said the event had enough volunteer help to go fairly smoothly. She noted that the entire boys soccer team showed up to help.
The course included two creek crossings and two steep hills, which made times a little slower, but provided a lot of variety for runners.
Schumacher said she warned her team ahead of time not to expect blazing times.
“It was definitely a slower course,” she said. “They got some really good times at the Saxon meet (on Sept. 8). I let them know that this was a slower course.”
There were no personal bests on Thursday for the Huskies, but Schumacher said her runners continue to improve, some dramatically.
For the third race in a row, freshman Eddy Martinez-Maya was the top finisher for the Huskies, taking 14th out of 89 runners in the boys varsity 5,000-meter race in 18:49.7. East Linn Christian’s Jedaiah Wasson was the winner, in 17:08.7.
“So far, Eddy has been doing really well,” Schumacher said, noting that he is recovering from a “slight injury, that put him off a little. “He’s consistently been our No. 1 runner.”
Behind Martinez-Maya were senior Noah Dinsfriend, 31st in 19:34.9; junior Tristan Saultz, 36th in 19:43.7; sophomore Gavin Walberg, 41st in 19:57.2; senior Austin Sills, 49th in 20:11.5; sophomore Treyson Smith half a second back in 50th (20:11.9); and freshman Nathaniel Coleman 51st in 20:16.3.
“Nathaniel Coleman kind of surprised us,” Schumacher said. “He ran really well at Saxon, so we put him on the varsity this week and he finished right up there. He might be a regular on the varsity this season.”
She said another pleasant surprise is Walberg, who cut a minute off his personal best for 5,000 meters at Saxon and beat his best time from last year again on the slower course at Community Chapel.
Also finishing in the varsity race, for East Linn, was freshman Ethan Hurst, a Sweet Home resident who was 61st, in 21:11.3.
The Huskies were eighth of 11 teams, with 167 points, behind Newport, which was first (55), Philomath in third (69), Lebanon in fourth (112), Sisters in sixth (136) and East Linn in seventh (144).
In the girls varsity race, sophomore Jessy Hart was 13th out of 59 runners in 23:06.9, with senior Madelyn Neuschwander 32nd (26:04.4) and sophomore Sicily Neuschwander 35th (27:03.8).
Sophomore Tristan Calkins led the Husky junior varsity runners on a 3,000-meter course, running 12:20.5 to place 18th out of 129 runners. Junior Zach Zanona was 36th in 12:57.8, followed by junior Bryce Porter, 38th in 13:00.4; senior Evan Davis, 46th in 13:15.1; junior Connor Ford, 57th in 13:45.3; and sophomore Jaren Adams, 71st in 14:59.3.
As a team, Sweet home finished sixth of eight teams, behind Philomath, Newport and Sisters.
The Huskies will compete next on Saturday, Sept. 22, at the Three Course Challenge at Camp Rilea, north of Seaside.
Middle school races start at 9 a.m., followed by high school races in a variety of difficulties and distances at 9:35 a.m.