Jakob Hiett won his third straight district cross-country championship Thursday, Oct. 23, at Lane Community College, running 16:16.1.
Elmira held off the Husky boys in the team competition to take the second team berth at the state championships, behind Sisters, this Saturday, Nov. 1, also at LCC.
“We were pegged fourth, took third, and for a portion it looked like we might sneak the fifth and sixth (runners) in,” Coach Andrew “Keebler” Allen said of the boys. Cross-country meets score the finishes of a team’s top five runners, so every runner counts – sometimes even the sixth and seventh runners, who technically don’t score but whose finishes are calculated in if teams wind up in a tie.
“The trip to state comes down to the fifth man every year,” Allen said. “Fourth and fifth can lose a meet for you.”
Hiett went straight to the front of the field and stayed there throughout, and really had no challengers as Sisters’ Tony Hooks and Dyut Fetrow, both juniors, finished second (16:55.5) and third (17:13.5).
Hiett said he “worked pretty hard in the first bit, especially” in an attempt to tire his opponents.
“It might have worked because Dyut (who normally is Sisters’ top runner) finished third.”
Hiett’s time was exactly sixth-tenths of a second faster than his winning run last year as a junior, but it comes at the end of a season that he started with almost zero summer training due to a stress fracture.
Sweet Home’s girls finished fifth, as two of the Huskies’ top four runners have not been healthy and one, Dana Hiett, was unable to run at all Thursday. Freshman Bethany Gingerich was Sweet Home’s top finisher, in ninth (22:21.6), followed by junior Kayleen Keeney in 10th (22:30.6). Junior Sierra Swanson was third, in 18th (23:01.4).
Keeney’s time was a minute faster than she ran on the same course last year and Swanson was 13 seconds faster.
“Kayleen ran the first half exactly like we told her,” Allen said,. She did for the first 3,000 meters, but she couldn’t hold on. But both she and Bethany moved up a spot from the hypothetical (seeding based on previous races) coming into the race. They ran a good race.”
Sisters senior Aria Blumm, who finished third in last year’s race, ran away from Cottage Grove’s Breanna Wright to take the individual title in 19:29.1, and led her fellow Outlaws to the team trophy as well – with four Sisters finishers in the top five. Wright, a junior and last year’s winner, who has struggled with injuries this year and has been forced to sit most of the season, limped across the finish line in second place, nevertheless, in 21:15.9 – well over the 19:50 she ran last year.
It was the first year since 2011 that the Husky girls have not qualified for state, but Allen said the team, though talented, did not have enough of it. The injuries, some of which were not from cross country, eliminated any chance they had of outpointing Sutherlin.
Sweet Home also missed having a dominant front runner, which the girls have had since Amanda Basham in 2008.
“We were a No. 1 and a No. 5 (runner) away from a trip to state,” Allen said. “The competition came in very good. We knew Sisters was going to be good. Sutherlin came on really strong in the second half. Dana being out took us out from being competitive. With a healthy Dana and a healthy Sierra, we’re one girl away from being good.”
The top four boys turned in top-notch performances, he said.
Second for the Huskies was sophomore Trey Reed, in eighth (17:43.2), in his first year of cross-country, followed by sophomore Issac Justham in 12th (18:43.5) and junior Julian Hesberg in 13th (18:44.4). Freshman Noah Taraski was the Huskies’ fifth scorer, in 27th (20:02.6).
Allen said he was pleased with Hiett’s run, but “the one I’d brag about the most is Julian. He had the best race – hands down.”
Overall, the Huskies had seven lifetime personal-bests out of 19 attempts and several others within five seconds of their fastest time of their lives.
“That course is not nearly as fast as some we’ve run in recent weeks,” Allen said, to add context to those times.
“Our top four guys this year were better than last year,” he said. “The problem was the gap between the fourth and fifth runners. The rest of the conference decided they wanted to move up. They thought Sisters was going to be weak and they saw us graduate four seniors and they saw an opportunity. The reality is we lose one person this year – yes, it’s Jakob, but everybody else is an underclassman. We are going to be much better. The irony is that our team is largely better this year.”
Sweet Home had no JV girls, but it fielded a full JV boys team for the first time in years. They finished third with 79 points, behind Elmira (19) and Sisters (39). Allen Cuilla was the Huskies’ top finisher, 12th overall.
Hiett has the best time in the state, at 15:36.0 on the ultra-fast Country Fair Classic course, going into the state meet. He beat Shane Crowfoot of Hidden Valley, who has the second-fastest time at (15:37.5) at Philomath on Oct. 4 but lost to Valley Catholic’s Wilder Boyden and Ben Davidson, who are third and fourth, early in the season when he was battling back from his injury, as he did with Seth Campbell of Siuslaw, who’s ranked eighth.
“I just want to go out and see what I’ve got,” he said of the state championship. “It’s my last official race as a senior, so might as well go out fast.”
“I expect my biggest competition from Shane Crowfoot and Wilder Boyden of Valley Catholic. And I can’t count out Seth Campbell and the other guy from Valley Catholic.”
The boys 4A division race is scheduled for 11:50 a.m., after the girls at 11:15 at Lane Community College.
Sky-Em Conference
Cross-Country Championships
Boys Team Scores – (1) Sisters 38; (2) Elmira 51; (3) Sweet Home 61; (4) Junction City 71; (5) Cottage Grove 133; (6) Sutherlin 171.
Boys Individual Results – (1) Jakob Hiett (SH) 16:!6.7; (2) Tony Hooks (Sis) 16:55.5; (3) Dyut Fetrow (Sis) 17:13.5; (4) Gannon Jones (E) 17:25.3; (5) Ben Douthit (E) 17:30.0; (6) Shea Krevi (Sis) 17:35.6; (7) Jordan Pollard (Sis) 17:42.4; (8) Trey Reed (SH) 17:43.2; (9) Morgan McAdams (JC) 17:56.9; (10) Ridge Lemieux (JC) 18:04.5; (11) Austin Smith (E) 18:34.4; (12) Issac Justham (SH) 18:43.5; (13) Julian Hesberg (SH) 18:43.5*; (14) Ryan Meighan (JC) 18:44.4; (15) Riley Craig (E) 18:46.8; (16) Cody Wolkersdorfer (E) 18:58.8; (17) Pete Frazee (JC) 19:02.6; (18) Carson Baine (E) 19:03.6; (19) Shane Orme (E) 19:05.6; (20) Patrick Krevi (Sis) 19:05.6; (21) Ben Swancutt (CG) 19:11.9; (22) Adam Najera (CG); (23) Connor Howard ((CG) 19:33.9; (24) Zach Bodi (JC) 19:49.1; (25) Jarrett Raade (CG) 19:58.7; (26) William Werts (Sis) 19:59.4; (27) Noah Taraski (SH) 20:02.6*; (28) Joseph Rasmussen (SH) 20:06.7; (29) Tristan Allen (Suth) 20:07.3; (30) Haeden Rauh (Suth) 20:09.7; (31) Anthony Trujillo (CG) 20:37.6; (32) Daniel Agustin (CG) 20:38.3; (33) Matthew Black (Suth) 20:54.0; (34) Cole Pade (Sis) 20:55.1; (35) Kendrick Murphy (CG) 20:56.6; (36) Michael Tharpe (CG) 21:15.4; (37) Ryan Parker (JC) 21:17.1; (38) Nick Rietz (SH) 21:36.5; (39) Wyatt Keady (Suth) 21:37.8; (40) Marco Gutierrez (Suth) 23:35.1.
Girls Team Scores – (1) Sisters 24; (2) Sutherlin 75; (3) Junction City 82; (4) Cottage Grove 106; (5) Sweet Home 110; (6) Elmira 116.
Girls Individual Scores – (1) Aria Blumm (Sis) 19:29.1; (2) Breanna Wright (CG) 21:15.9; (3) Macadia Calavan (Sis) 21:22.2; (4) Sophie Borders (5) Madison Boettner (Sis) 21:30.5; (6) Evelyn Tedrick (JC) 21:49.2; (7) Sydney Thielman (JC) 21:59.8; (8) Baylee Merrifield (Suth) 22:05.7; (9) Bethany Gingerich (SH) 22:21.6; (10) Kayleen Keeney (SH) 22:30.6; (11) Serena Salisbury (Sis) 22:33.7; (12) Camerin Feagins (Suth) 22:34.5; (13) Morgan Craig (E) 22:34.3; (14) Ricki Mock (Suth) 22:36.7; (15) Mary Stewart (Sis) 22:44.7; (16) Millie Carpenter (E) 22:57.1; (17) Abril Leal-Coronel (CG) 23:00.2; (18) Sierra Swanson (SH) 23:01.4; (19) Shayla Solomon (JC) 23:09.5; (20) Brittany Hanson (Suth) 23:15.6; (21) Vanessa Crite (Suth) 23:35.1; (22) Amanda Darcy (JC) 23:47.8; (23) Katelyn Godon (Suth) 23:57.4l; (24) Kalea Galbreath (CG) 23:59.1; (25) Natalie Marshal (Sis) 23:59.8; (26) Miranda Harrison (E) 24:23.9; (27) Allie Harris (CG) 24:36.6; (28) Brandy Foust (JC) (24:41.6); (29) Myckenzie Moore (E) 24:48.9; (30) Emma Matteo (Suth) 24:48.9; (31) Rose Lay (JC) 25:23.2; (32) Annalisa Linn (E) 25:53.7; (33) Hannah Robertson (E) 26:02.2; (34) Kayla Tellez (JC) 26:21.4; (35) Kanon Nakamura (SH) 26:24.8; (36) Jessica Ray (CG) 26:25.4; (37) Madeline Curtis (E) 26:34.0; (38) Maria Daniels (SH) 26:38.1; (39) Kate Johns (CG) 26:51.6; (40) Kaitlyn Brooks (CG) 26:55.9; (41) Jessica Stockman (SH) 27:41.6.
Junior Varsity Top Three and Sweet Home Finishers – (1) Levi Hanson (E) 19:56; (2) Ethan Agens (E) 19:58.6; (3) Blaine Loftis (E) 20:23.7; (12) Allen Cuilla (SH) 21:23.0; (23) Adam Barber (SH) 23:44.5; (24) Jun Kaneyama (SH) 23:54.5*; (26) Cameron Tabor (SH) 24:18.3*; (27) Jake Hindmarsh (SH) 24:22.0*.