On a cool day, on a fast course at Albany’s Bryant Park, Sweet Home’s cross-country runners made the most of it.
“I thought we had an exceptionally good meet,” Coach Dave Martin said, noting that eight of his nine high school girls finished with season-best times “and most were lifetime bests.”
Seven of 11 boys ran either season or lifetime bests.
“That’s a pretty good percentage,” Martin said. “That’s 75% of the kids, and the kids who didn’t get PRs weren’t off by much.”
The meet is run differently than many during the cross-country season, with standard varsity races for high-schoolers, but with those normally running junior varsity divided into junior/senior and frosh/soph fields on the boys and girls sides. A total of 55 high school teams were present, from all over Western Oregon, including some large-school heavy hitters such as South Eugene and North Eugene, as well as 2A schools such as East Linn Christian and Central Linn.
In the girls varsity race, sophomore Emma Whitton posted her best time of the year – by a minute, running 19:05.37 to finish 10th in a field of 189, with Philomath’s Cassidy Smart the only 4A runner ahead of her (18:51.18). Senior McKenzie Miller was right behind, in a25-second lifetime best of 19:18.62.
Husky junior Ryker Burr finished the boys varsity race in 56th place in a field of 240, in a PR of 17:24.08. Ahead of him were 4A runners Marshfield senior Jaxson Stovall (15:40.63), Philomath senior Leo Pausch (15:49.95), Philomath senior Lukas Hernandez (17:07.89), Cottage Grove sophomore Jennings Albrecht (17:11.20) and Newport sophomore David Albavera (17:19.37).
In the boys frosh/soph race, sophomore Acen Webber led the Huskies with a sixth-place finish in a field of 295 runners, in a personal-best 18:04.22, followed by freshman Elijah Rodriguez in seventh (18:12.32). Sophomore Louis Kistner was 30th in a 50-second PR of 19:05.01, followed by sophomore Evan Knight, 38th in 19:14.34, freshman Hudson Ogden, 83rd in a PR of 20:22.65, sophomore Wes Goff, 84th in 20:23.22, also a PR, sophomore Noah Strawn in a PR of 20:36.73, freshman Bentley Uhlry in a PR of 21:22.98 and sophomore Eli Adams in 24:08.42, his best run of the season thus far.
Sweet Home’s Frosh/Soph boys were fourth out of 23 teams, the top 4A school in the field, with 136 points. Newport was 10ths (259), Phlomath was 12th (307), Estacada was 13th (322) and Cottage Grove was 17th (466). Lincoln won the team title with 82 points, ahead of Sheldon (86) and Corvallis (112).
In the girls frosh/soph race, freshman Cassie Spencer was fifth in a field of 159 in a PR of 21:20.61, followed by freshman Marian Helfrich in a PR of 23:54.80, freshman Pyper Hall in a PR of 24:12.12, sophomore Madi Ciullo in a PR of 24:29.65, and freshman Lexi Lee in 31:57.38.
The Huskies were eighth out of 14 teams.
“Marian and Pyper both PR’d by about a minute and a half, and Maddie PR’d by two minutes,” Martin noted.
In the boys junior/senior race, junior Conner Spencer was the top finisher for Sweet Home, running 20:05.90, ahead of senior Sam Strawn, who ran a personal-best 24:14.11.
In the girls junior/senior race, junior Noelle Helfrich finished in 23:47.33, ahead of McKenzie Ohlheiser, who posted an approximately two-minute PR of 26:38.
“We ran really well,” Martin said, adding that the previous week’s workouts gave him a hint of good things to come.
“The kids not only competed well, but I was super impressed with how they got themselves ready to race because I was running around, from race to race. I was super impressed with their level of maturity, knowing what to do, being able to get themselves ready to run.”
In the middle school boys competition, Brady Goff finished in 15:40.65, while Zander Davis ran 19:43.05.
For the girls, Emma Davis finished in 16:19.32, followed by Violet Steinborn in 18:53.95.
Up next for Sweet Home is the Paul Mariman Invitational Saturday, Oct. 11, which includes most of the top small-school teams in western Oregon. Middle school races are at 11 and 11:30 a.m., followed by high school junior varsity girls and boys at 1 and 1:30 p.m. and varsity girls and boys at 2 and 2:30 p.m.