Sweet Home’s Jakob Hiett was sixth Saturday at the Three Course Challenge at Camp Rilea, north of Seaside, one of the state’s largest cross-country meets.
The meet is divided into three races each for boys and for girls, over courses rated “easy (about 4500 meters),” “medium (about 5000)” and “hard” (about 5200). All are run over sand hills on the seaside National Guard training base and involve a mud pit and other challenging terrain, so none are really easy.
“It is a fun meet,” Coach Andrew “Keebler” Allen said. “It’s interesting having 116 teams out there. There’s quite a variety of competition.”
The field included teams from all sizes of schools, mostly from Oregon and Washington, with one from British Columbia. Each race is scored independently, with most teams represented in all three races on both the girls and boys side, as Sweet Home was this year.
“We ran fairly well, considering we were missing five guys for various reasons – though none academic,” Allen said. “Just other conflicts.”
He said the overnight trip and the races, which leave runners exhausted and mud-encrusted, are “a good team-building experience.
“We had no standout performances, but Jakob is steadily climbing back to his position.”
Because the courses at Camp Rilea, can vary significantly from year to year, comparisons of times can be iffy, but Hiett did win last year’s moderate race in a time that was about 22 seconds faster than this year’s winner of that race.
Hiett’s time of 20:00 was 40 seconds behind the top finisher, John Rodeheffer of Oak Harbor, Wash.. who ran 19:20, followed by Thomas Morrell III of Centennial in 19:27.
The next Sky-Em finisher behind Hiett was Ridge Lemieux of Junction City, 35th in 22:11, followed by Sisters freshman Jordan Pollard, 44th in 22:28 and Shea Krevi, 46th in 22:29.
Sweet Home’s other “hard course” competitors were sophomores Trey Reed, 73rd in 23:14 and Issac Justham, 91st in 23:53.
“Trey and Issac did quite well,” Allen said. “Issac closed the gap on Trey a lot, which was a good thing. We’re definitely seeing continuation of Trey’s growth as a runner.”
Junior Julian Hesberg was Sweet Home’s top finisher, in 161st place in 24:30. He was followed by Joseph Rasmussen (300th in 27:31) and Adam Barber, (365th in 29:32).
The top finishers were a pair of Mountain View runners, Dakota Thornton in 18:45, followed by Christian VanSise in 19:06.
The top finisher from the Sky-Em Conference was junior Dyut Fetrow of Sisters, 11th in 20:16.
In the “easy” race, Sweet Home’s Allen Cuillo was 234th in 22:01, followed by Nick Tolman (289th in 22:11) and Jake Hindmarsh (357th in 25:28).
On the girls side, Allen said freshman Bethany Gingerich continued to develop, finishing the “hard” course ahead of two teammates.
“We had our best runners on the hard course and Bethany took the lead again, but it was not a big gap – 30 seconds between them all.”
Gingerich was 58th overall in 29:23, followed by Sierra Swanson (77th in 30:02) and Kayleen Keeney (83rd in 30:10).
“They were stepping out from depending on one another,” Allen said. “Bethany has talent and now she has the strength to be a front runner. Our girls have talent that hasn’t developed yet. We’re working to develop that.”
Amber Rose of Inglemoor, Wash. was the overall winner, in 23:04, on the “hard” course, with Scappoose freshman Linnaea Kavulich the first Oregon finisher, third in 24:52.
Breanna Wright of Cottage Grove was second overall in the “medium” race in 23:27, behind Lacey Conner of St. Mary’s Academy (22:38). Maria Daniels was 98th as the Huskies top finisher in that race, in 26:48, followed by rookie Kanon Nakamura, who was 170th in 31:33.
Sophomore Dana Hiett was the seventh finisher in Sweet Home’s division, finishing 50th overall in the “easy” race in 22:50. Tia Hatton of Mountain View was the winner, in 18:38 and Sisters senior Aria Blumm was sixth, in 19:35, with teammate Macadia Calavan 26th in 21:20.
Jessica Stockman was 295th, in 29:35 and Sierra Owen was 269th, in 38:03.
“Kanon had a great race,” Allen said. “One benefit of this race is you don’t know where your teammates area, so you have to run your own race.”
The really bright spot for Sweet Home Saturday was in the middle school 3000-meter race, in which Sweet Home’s Eric Seitz was fifth in 11:54 after outkicking teammate Tanner Vannice (12:00) down the home stretch in a field of 117. Noah Dinsfriend was 21st, in 13:14. The race was won by Tucker Olson of Horizon Christian, in 11:01. Sisters’ sixth-grader Ethan Hosang was third, in 11:21. No Sweet Home Junior High girls competed.
Thursday, Sweet Home will compete in the Harrier’s Challenge at Schwartz Park on Dorena Lake in Cottage Grove. This course has a steep climb up the face of a dam and represents the final course with significant hills that Sweet Home will run this season.
“The Harrier Challenge is a good indicator of what’s to come,” Allen said. “That meet usually sets the tone for the rest of the season.”
Sweet Home’s boys, who have not run at full strength in any meet thus far this season, have been beaten by both Sisters and Elmira thus far. The girls have been outscored by Junction City and Cottage Grove.
“There are four teams fighting for second place right now on the girls side,” Allen said. “It’s anybody’s game.”