Jessy Hart posted a big personal best Saturday, Sept. 8, at the Saxon Invite cross-country meet held at Bush Park in Salem.
Hart ran the 5,000-meter course in 20:53.3, nearly a minute faster than her previous best, set at last year’s district meet at Lane Community College.
Though cross-country times are somewhat relative, since course conditions vary widely – with hills, mud and water obstacles, trail conditions, etc., that time was a fast one for Hart, Sweet Home Assistant Coach Courtney Emmert said.
Emmert, who ran in high school for host school South Salem, has raced at Bush Park many times, she said. The course on Saturday was faster than the home course she ran at South Salem, with less hills, but it did include one hill climb, she said.
“The course is really fast now,” Emmert said. “It was fun to see how different it was from when I ran it. It was a tough field. There were a lot of good teams out there.
“Jessy had a really great day.”
For the boys, freshman Eddy Martinez-Maya was Sweet Home’s top finisher, running 18:05.78 to finish 71st out of 130 runners from 24 teams, ranging from 6A to 2A. Sweet Home finished 15th out of the 18 entrants, but Valley Catholic, the top 4A school in the meet, was 12th with 294 points. Siuslaw was 14th (305), followed by the Huskies (418).
Rounding out the varsity finishers for Sweet Home were junior Tristan Saultz, 95th in 18:48.84, followed closely by sophomore Gavin Walberg in 96th (18:55.78). Sophomore Treyson Smith was 105th in 19:26.98, followed by senior Austin Sills in 106th (19:27.58) and freshman Brian Frick, 117th in 19:56.69.
“They all ran really well,” Emmert said of the Huskies, noting that a number posted personal- or season’s best times. “All of the varsity guys ran under 20 minutes.”
Martinez’s performance, in particular, “surprised me,” she said.
“I’m very excited about how Eddy ran. You can’t really compare it to the last meet (the Ultimook Race Nike Invitational on Sept. 1 in Tillamook), because it was a way slower course.
“This was Eddy’s second high school meet. He ran really well. He was going for 18 minutes and I gave him the splits for that. He ran 18:05.”
Hart had two teammates in the girls varsity race, in which she placed 34th out of 124 runners.
Senior Madelyn Neuschwander was 99th in 23:31.89 for her first high school cross-country race and sophomore Sicily Neuschwander was 117th in 25:33.55. Two more girls are needed for Sweet Home to be able to field a scoring team.
For the junior varsity boys, freshman Nate Coleman was the top Husky, finishing 54th out of 133 runners. The Huskies were 15th out of 17 teams.
Sophomore Tristan Calkins was 65th in 20:03.43; senior Evan Davis was 88th in 20:57.90; and juniors Eric Roddy (106th, 21:27.03) and Bryce Porter (119th, 22:25.99) rounded out the finishers for Sweet Home.