Four years ago, Coach Dave Martin returned to Sweet Home High School after a 20-year absence to find a cross-country team numbering eight boys and seven girls, some doubling with other sports and all inexperienced in distance running over hill and dale.
During 2021 – the COVID shutdown, there had been six total who finished the season.
This year Martin has 13 boys (nearly the total of his first year) and 17 girls, most of them young but most not inexperienced in cross-country. They include at least three who, if healthy, should be competitive at the highest levels of state 4A competition – but more on that in a moment.
“Things are going very well right now,” Martin said. “We have a great attitude and team chemistry. The kids are working really well and they are focused on goals and being better every day.”
Three of his boys, he said, are running long workouts of 10 miles at a time, and he has “four or five” girls who can run seven.
Going into this season, his fifth after returning, Martin brings 29 years of high school coaching experience and 14 of college track coaching at Oregon Institute of Technology, to the task of rebuilding the program he guided from 1980 through 2001 at Sweet Home.
During that period, he had “10 or 11” boys teams and six girls teams qualify for state, the girls finishing sixth at one point.
“We didn’t have a huge soccer program in those days,” he told The New Era when he returned in 2022. “We always had full teams.” His boys made regular appearances at state and finished second, third, fourth and fifth during his time at the helm.
Jessie Shra won Sweet Home’s only girls state cross-country title in 1993 under Martin’s tutelage, and although he didn’t have any boys champions, he had multiple runners finish in the top 10 – Jesse White, Manuel Robledo, Joe Olsen and others.
So Martin knows what he’s talking about when he evaluates his runners.
“So far, this is the best talented team, the best working team I’ve had in my four years.”
The girls are led by three seniors, McKenzie Miller, Annabelle Morris and Delainie Pratt.
Miller has run the third-fastest personal best ever by a Sweet Home girl, clocking 19:43 last year on the fast course at the Northwest Classic at Lane Community College.
She missed qualifying for state by one place – for the second year in a row, after being out sick for a week leading up to the race. She qualified for state last spring in the 3000, placing 11th in 10:48.91.
“I think McKenzie’s proven that she is capable of running with the best in the state,” Martin said.
Morris is doubling with soccer for the third year in a row, so will run a limited schedule and Pratt is using cross-country to train for track.
But Martin said she contributes experience on a girls team that has seven freshmen and four sophomores.
“Delainie is a great veteran who has been great for the team,” he said. “She’s knowledgeable about what to do and how to do it.”
The other returnee who has proved herself at the high school level is sophomore Emma Whitton, who was second at districts last year – by a step, and then finished fourth at the state championships in 19:01.9, the second-fastest time ever run by a Sweet Home girl and the fastest since Shra.
La Grande junior Brooke Perry, who won the state title in 18:36, is the only returnee expected back this year who finished ahead of Whitton.
“Obviously, we have two of the 10 best girls in the state in Emma and McKenzie,” Martin said.
We are very very fortunate to have two such studs leading our girls team.
“But all the girls have been working hard. I’m very impressed with (freshman) Cassie Spencer and (junior) Noel Helfrich, how much they’ve improved over last year.”
He noted that a majority of the high school team, as well as junior high runners, ran the entire summer, starting in late June, to prepare for this season.
Behind them are the freshmen, who were part of the second year of an effort to build a program at Sweet Home Junior High.
“This is the third year that we’ve had the junior high program and it has benefitted us each year,” Martin said. “The kids up from the junior high have been on varsity within a year or two, some of them in their first year. Getting the kids started young helps them.
“Other schools have specifically designated junior high coaches. If we had someone at the Junior High who is a designated coach, I think even more kids would come out.
“This year’s freshman class is the biggest we’ve had. We have seven freshmen girls and four freshmen boys this season. That is so great. We have a phenomenal group, with veterans and then this influx of new kids.”
Rounding out the girls roster are: juniors McKenzie Ohlheiser and Miu Simmons, who is doubling with soccer; sophomores Madison Ciullo and Madison Looney; and freshmen Zoie Allison, Pyper Hall, Marian Helfrich, Lexi Lee, Kali Vogel and Nevaeh Wize.
The boys, who have no seniors, are led by junior Ryker Burr, who “obviously is our No. 1 runner,” Martin said.
Burr, in his first full season of cross-country last year, missed state by one spot, then went on to qualify for state in track in the 800.
“He fully expects himself to get there this year,” Martin said. “He’s so much better than even last year. He’s running workout times that were fast for him in races last year. And the fun part is that other people have decided to go with him.”
Specifically, he said, sophomores Acen Webber and Evan Knight, and junior Conner Spencer are all running similar workouts.
“I will be surprised if all four don’t have lifetime (personal bests) in the first few weeks,” the coach said. “If they run PRs that early in the season, the way our program’s training goes, they will be even faster by the end of the year.
“All of the guys have been working hard and doing a good job, but those four have definitely stepped up their game.”
Rounding out the boys roster are junior Sam Strawn, sophomores Eli Adams, Louis Kistner and Noah Strawn, and freshmen Ryder Farris, Hudson Ogden, Elijah Rodriguez and Bentley Uhlry.
Martin said the Huskies have “big goals” as a team.
The Oregon West Conference, as in many sports, has some powerful forces – Philomath’s girls won last year’s state team title and Stayton was sixth, while on the boys side Newport was the state champ and Philomath was sixth.
“We are in a very tough league,” he said. “We’re trying to break into those ranks and we will see how well we can do. Our team is young and hungry. We will definitely be a better team this year and we could potentially get both our boys and girls teams to state, but as tough as the league is, we’ll have to see how we do.
“If we get to state, we have a chance to trophy because the teams we’re competing against are winning trophies or just missing.”
Sweet Home’s schedule is “competitive,” with an emphasis on races that match the Huskies up with league teams and others they could see at end-of-the-season competition. Their lone meet in Sweet Home will be the Sweet Home Chapel Run starting at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 27, at Community Chapel, 42250 Ames Creek Road.
“They’re hungry,” Martin said of his team. “They’ve been training for a long time. We’ve had a lot of people running over the summer and that’s helped us.”