The Sweet Home boys cross-country team has been slightly overshadowed by the girls thus far this year, but Wednesday, Oct. 20, they came into their own at the Elmira Invitational held at the Oregon Country Fair grounds.
Minus their star runner, the Sweet Home girls finished 10th out of 28 teams in the meet, which featured some of the best runners in the state. Olivia Johnson, who has led the Huskies in every meet this year and likely would have finished in the top five at Elmira, sat out with a sore knee.
The boys, courtesy of five lifetime bests among eight runners, and another who nearly equaled his, placed seventh –_directly behind Sisters and Cottage Grove, whom they will face Thursday, Oct. 28, at the Sky-Em district meet at Lane Community College.
“The boys had a good day,” Coach Billy Snow said. “That’s pretty good running.”
Nick Hall led the Huskies with a 14th-place finish in the field of 207 runners, in a 15-second personal record of 16:52. Daniel Danforth was 41st (17:36, a 25-second PR), Kyle Hummer 49th (17:54 – nearly matching his lifetime best), Lorenzo Virgen 65th (18:16, a 29-second PR), Joe Stroud 82nd (18:33, a 31-second PR), Brett King 94th (18:51) and Alec Goetz 113th (19:07, a 35-second PR).
Josh Seekatz of Philomath, who has been running in a zone all year, finished first in the race, in 15:54, leading the Warriors to second place, with 76 points, behind 6A competitor Roseburg (51). Sheldon was third (102), Marshfield fourth (152), Sisters fifth (162) with Taylor Steele finishing third overall in 16:20, Cottage Grove sixth behind Alex Garcia (fifth in 16:22) and Sweet Home seventh (237).
Snow said that after watching his team at Elmira, he believes they have the potential, “on a fast course,” to get six runners under 18 minutes.
“We have to have all our guys have a great day,” he said of the district meet. “They did it at Elmira so we’ll see what happens.”
He noted that if he removed the other teams in the Elmira results, Sisters would win, 35-36 over Cottage Grove, and Sweet Home would be third with 53 points.
“We’re at 53,” he said. “The door’s there. We’ve got to move each person up one place, relative to the other teams. The way they ran there (at Elmira), they’re capable.”
With Johnson out, a couple of huge PRs gave the girls a boost, led by freshman Nicole Rasmussen, who finished 12th in 20:20, a 36-second PR, followed by Carissa Swanson in 14th (20:27), a 27-second PR. Paige Sanders was third for the girls, in 67th place (22:44), followed by Caroline Amendola in 93rd (23:27), Jenna Kistner in 110th (24:23), Kimber Swanson in 132nd (25:18, a seven-second PR) and Tashana Mithen in 139th (26:11).
6A Sheldon, led by top finisher Louise Mulvey (19:15), finished first with 95 points, followed by Marist (96), Hidden Valley (146) behind fourth, sixth, eighth and 11th-placers, and Philomath in fourth (158) behind second-place finisher Annette Marinello in her best race of the season.
Cascade was fifth (175), thanks to excellent packing by its top seventh runners, who finished 26th through 64th. Sweet Home’s 273 points for 10th were well ahead of Sisters in 11th place (310).
Snow said that if the other teams were removed, Sisters would beat Sweet Home by a point – without Johnson.
“On the girls side, I feel a whole lot more comfortable,” he said. “Their goal remains the same: to be district champs.”
He said that after running at Pleasant Hill Saturday and then another fast race Wednesday, “it’s hard this time of season to run two great races back to back. They either had a great race on Saturday or on Wednesday. Nicole and Carissa really went out there.”
The district meet will begin at 2:30 p.m. Thursday at LCC.