The Sweet Home cross-country teams ran what will likely be the toughest race of the year, at least as far as terrain is concerned, Saturday at the Three-Course Challenge at Camp Rilea, north of Seaside.
“Overall, the kids had another good race,” said Coach Billy Snow. “First and foremost, they competed and had great fun – and no one got hurt. I am always worried about that with this race.”
The event attracted teams from more than 75 schools – some 47 from Oregon and 25 from Washington, and at least three from California – who were assigned one of the three race courses by lot. The “easy” course is a fairly standard cross-country course at 5,000 meters (3.1 miles), on mostly dirt roads and trails with some hills mixed in on the National Guard base where the event is held.
The “moderate” course is tougher and longer – with some steeper hills, a muddy section and 3.7 miles length. The “hard course” is 3.85 in length and includes steep hills including one climb on sand and two mud crossings.
“If I did my math correctly, 2,254 kids finished the six races,” Snow said. “There were 968 girls and 1,288 boys finishing. What a madhouse!”
Fifteen of the 25 Sweet Home runners finished in the top half of their races, Snow said, “which is a good measure of their abilities. Also, each kid who ran the same course as last year had a significant PR,” except for one for whom the course was lengthened this year.
Amanda Basham and Jayce Calhoon were the top finishers in their respective races. Basham medaled in 10th place among runners from 4A-sized schools on the difficult course ((37th of 299 finishers, 28:28.1) while Calhoon also finished 37th on the moderate course (438 runners, 22:19.2).
On the boys difficult course, Ramiro Santana was the top finisher for the Huskies, in 106th out of 469 runners (24:32.6), followed by Dallin Holden (111th, 24:36.4), Rob Callagan (136th, 25:13.0), Brinden Sanders (142nd, 25:21.5), Nikki Smith (238th, 27:17.0) and David Rinehart (401st, 32:01.2).
On the girls difficult course, two Sweet Home freshmen finished behind Basham: Olivia Johnson, in 115th place (31:10.1) and Carissa Swanson right behind in 116th place (31:10.2).
On the boys moderate course, Huskies finishing behind Calhoon were Josh Rice (72nd, 23:15.4), Land Florek (75th, 23:18.0), Byron Sanders (94th, 23:54.2), Dustin Collman (147th, 24:49.9), and Chris Thompson (302nd, 28:24.8).
On the girls moderate course, Ashley Danielson led the way for the Huskies, finishing 118th out of 368 runners (30:16.7), followed by Jill Mahler (133rd, 30:58.6), Natasha Perry (284th, 36:41.7) and Taylor Rodgers (288th, 36:45.0).
On the boys easy course, Michael Simmonds finished 166th out of 381 runners, (20:28.4), followed by Alex Whitlow (255th, 22:26.8), Jon Lemar (301st, 24:14.9) and Conner Cunha (356th, 27:34.5).
On the girls easy course, Sweet Home’s Jenna Kistner finished 172nd out of 299 runners (27:13.8), and Louise Wilcox finished 293rd in 36:13.2.
Sweet Home Invitational
at Camp Tadmor
The Huskies continued to build on the promise they’ve shown early in the season as they faced the one Val-Co League team they had not raced against yet this year – Philomath – at the Sweet Home Invitational on Tuesday, Sept. 18.
The Warrior boys and girls team are ranked as the most successful teams in the state by Who’s Who in Oregon Track and Field among the 4A division teams. The boys have appeared in the state meet for 23 straight years and the girls have qualified for state 27 straight years.
That’s what the Sweet Home boys and girls will be facing as they make a bid for their own state championships berth this year and they learned Tuesday that the Warriors are again for real.
The Sweet Home varsity girls took the team title – for the second straight year, finishing first with 40 points, followed by Philomath (51), Central (74), Cascade (96), Stayton (101), Creswell (147), North Marion (150) and Junction City (201).
Philomath’s Yessenia Alvarado, who finished last in the 2006 Tadmor race because she missed a turn, stayed on course this year to finish first in the field of 49 runners, outkicking Stayton’s Emily Hendricks (second in 22:27) and the Huskies’ Amanda Basham (third, 22:32) to finish in 22:16. Patricia Guterrez of Cottage Grove was fourth (23:07), Creswell’s Leonie Mohr was fifth (23:17) and the next three runners were from Sweet Home – Carissa Swanson (23:26), Ashley Danielson (23:27) and Olivia Johnson (23:37). Jill Mahler was the Huskies’ fifth runner, outkicking Annie Esterberg of Philomath in the last 100 meters to take 21st place (25:26).
Philomath’s boys scored 49 points to second-place Sweet Home’s 71 to take the varsity boys team title, with Central third with 89 points. Other team placers were Oakridge in fourth place (99), Cascade (147), Cottage Grove (160), North Marion (208), Stayton (229), Junction City (236), Creswell (252) and Yamhill-Carlton (272).
Max Long of Oakridge ran 17:03 to finish first in the field of 72 runners in the boys varsity race. The top Val-Co finisher was Jeff-Schreiner-McGraw of Philomath, fourth in 18:17, who was followed by five more Val-Co runners – Central’s Martin Saldana (fifth, 18:23) and Joe Deardorff (sixth, 18:26), Philomath’s Louis Donadio (seventh, 18:26), Ramiro Santana of Sweet Home (eighth, 18:27) and Philomath’s David Weiner (ninth, 18:46).
The other varsity finishers for Sweet Home were Brinden Sanders (12th, 16:56), Byron Sanders (14th, 19:00), Land Florek (17th, 19:03), Robert Callagan (20th, 19:12), Dallin Holden (21st, 19:13) and Nikki Smith (35th, 20:14).
Josh Rice was the winner in the 47-runner JV boys race, finishing the 3000-meter course in 11:26. Other Sweet Home finishers were Dustin Collman (fifth, 11:47), Michael Simmonds (ninth, 12:53), Chris Thompson (24th, 14:06), David Rinehart (25th, 14:23), Brad Pitts (26th, 14:24), Jon Lemar (39th, 16:07), Dakota Nave (40th, 16:09), and Conner Cunha (46th, 18:08).
Central won the JV boys team competition, with 59 points, while Sweet Home was second (62), Oakridge third (96), Cottage Grove fourth (136) and Stayton fifth (150).
In the girls JV race, Jenna Kistner was the top finisher for Sweet Home, in ninth place (17:01, followed by Taylor Rodgers (17:06), and Louise Wilcox (22:28).
Philomath was the only team that fielded five runners, finishing with 52 points.