After last week’s 3A cross country action, John Lovik is poised to possibly finish first at the Capital Conference District meet.
The Husky boys team as a whole may catch Stayton, which appeared to be the team’s competition for the second spot at the district meet.
But the Huskies and Stayton are going to have to deal with surprise competition in Sisters, which just missed topping the Capital Conference favorite, Molalla, at Bend last week.
Sisters ran a 1:03 gap from first through fifth to score 393 points at 14th place. Molalla ran a 54-second gap from first through fifth, finishing with 386 points and 13th place.
Sisters is used to training in a high-altitude environment, but Molalla still managed to squeak by Sisters on the slow Bend course, Husky Coach Wayne Spinney said. That shows the type of competition Molalla will bring.
With that kind of performance, Sisters could end up second in the district instead of Stayton or the Huskies.
The Huskies could likely catch Stayton, but Sweet Home’s gap from first to fifth at Dallas on Saturday ran from John Lovik who set a season PR at 16:47 to Richard Westvik at 19:30, a gap of 2:43. From the Huskies second runner Chris Burford, 18:25, to Westvik, the gap is 1:05.
The gap between Lovik and the next four runners needs to close up to make it to state, Coach Spinney said. While Lovik is pushing his time up, the team isn’t responding at this point and cutting its times to match.
The boys finished third at Dallas on Saturday behind Lebanon and Central. Lebanon put two runners in ahead of Lovik and Corvallis had one ahead of Lovik, who finished fourth.
Coach Spinney is looking forward to facing Central again at Creswell this week on Thursday. With Kyle Temple, who did not run Saturday, he believes the Huskies would beat Central.
For the boys, Aaron Lovik was the third Husky runner at 18:45. Chris Lovely finished 19:25. Mike Lummus finished at 19:53. Robert McGarry finished at 20:01 to round out the varsity team.
The first-place runner, from 4A Lebanon, was 30 seconds ahead of J. Lovik the last time they raced, Coach Spinney said. J. Lovik closed that gap to 12 seconds, and he is now being considered a “wild card” for the district meet. He could finish at the top ahead of Ben Howard, the top runner from Molalla, and two hot Stayton runners, all of whom he has beaten in the past. J. Lovik also set the 22nd fastest time ever at Dallas.
“In the one week interim, John closed 20 seconds,” Coach Spinney said. “He just looked really strong the whole way.”
Coach Spinney said his team ran hard during practice all week leading up to the race on Saturday. The teams will be more rested and should be healthy by the time they run at Creswell, where they will get a look at the state course at Lane Community College.
He expects to run the full varsity team for the first time this year, Coach Spinney said, and the girls varsity will have six runners.
On the girls team, Megan Snow did not run Saturday. Anne Helfrich led the Huskies at 23:37. Kim Lovik finished 25:14. Diane Kennelly set a lifetime PR by nearly 30 seconds at 26:28. Danyel Cranford shaved three minutes off her lifetime PR to finish 32:07.
On the boys junior varsity, Shant Little finished 23:09 setting a new lifetime PR. Sam Crain finished at 23:52, improving his lifetime PR by about 30 seconds.
“The most encouraging thing was how fast John ran and how easy it looked for him,” Coach Spinney said.