Scott Swanson
Sweet Home cross-country looks to be on the rise after a number of down years, punctuated by multiple coaching changes since the retirement of longtime Coach Billy Snow in 2014.
Head Coach Kambria Schumacher is entering her third year at the helm and has the largest group of runners for the Huskies since 2015.
The really good news is that number includes five girls, enough to field a scoring team for the first time in four years.
“We have a good group of kids out,” Schumacher said. “We finally have five girls out, and I’m going to try to grab a couple more.”
Leading the girls will be junior Jessy Hart, who placed fourth at the conference championships last year, breaking the 20-minute barrier on the somewhat pedestrian Lane Community College course with a time of 19:58. She turned her ankle during the state race, on essentially the same course the following week, so did not finish. She went on to place third in the district meet in the 400 and seventh at state in that event.
“She’s going to be our No. 1 runner,” Schumacher said. “She has that experience.”
Also back from last year is junior Sicily Neuschwander, who will double with soccer, but is expected to focus more heavily on cross-country, according to Schumacher.
“Sicily is a hard worker.”
Another returnee is junior Summer Hicks, who did not run last year after competing as a freshman.
Newcomers are senior Lexi Schilling and freshman Meeja Bitter, both of whom are new to the sport.
Schilling, however, is one of the top female high school wrestlers in the state, and joins several other wrestlers, including Hart, who’ve incorporated cross-country into their preparation for a winter on the mats.
“Meeja has no experience yet, but with more experience, she’ll continue to do better and better,” Schumacher said.
On the boys side, the goal is a state team berth, Schumacher said.
The Huskies finished sixth last year behind Newport, which finished second at state, and Philomath, which was seventh at state.
But this year, they are led by senior Tristan Saultz, who has set the pace for the team, Schumacher said.
“I expect the boys team to get to state,” she said. “We have lot of strong runners. They know they can. The hardest thing is to convince them do something they don’t believe in.
The Oregon West League will be one of the state’s toughest again this year, so a trip to state would prove that the Huskies deserve to be considered one of Oregon’s best 4A program.
In the OSAA preseason coaches poll, Newport is ranked second, behind Marist, with Philomath third and Sisters sixth. Stayton is 10th.
“Tristan Saultz is completely convinced and he’s motivating the rest of the group,” Schumacher said. “As long as they keep their enthusiasm up and the hard work that it’s going to take to get to state, I know they can do it.”
She said she expects the top four runners, going into the season, to be Saultz, junior Gavin Walberg and sophomores Eduardo Martinez-Maya and Treyson Smith.
“The last three spots will be competitive,” she said.
Smith came on strong in his freshman year, cracking the varsity and posting a PR of 18:17 on the LCC course at the district meet. The other three were well off their season-bests, though those were run on faster courses.
The boys team includes a number of incoming freshmen and other newcomers to high school cross-country, who may make things interesting.
Freshman Adrian Kast, who ran alone for Sweet Home Junior High until the club program picked up two other runners later in the season, finished fourth in a field of 260 runners at the end-of-season NW Middle School XC Showdown held at Avery Park in Corvallis, running 11:36.90 on the 3000-meter course.
Schumacher noted that he’s already shown promise in the high school workouts.
Also, another former junior high runner, Jorel Leyba, has joined the program as a sophomore and threatens to crack the scoring line-up, she said.
The boys team is rounded out by seniors Eric Roddy, Bryce Porter and Zach Zanona, juniors Jaren Adams and Tristan Calkins, sophomores Nate Coleman, Brian Frick, Jesse Jamison and Aiden Shamek, and freshmen Christopher Kurtz, Dakota Seiber and Chris Topher.
“Nate (Coleman) was on varsity last year, and he’s doing pretty well so far,” Schumacher said.
Schumacher has help this season from her sister, Cassandra, who will serve as an assistant.
Both Schumachers competed for Sweet Home in cross-country and track beginning in 2005, when they transferred from East Linn Christian Academy, promptly establishing themselves in the top-10 lists for cross-country and the distance events in track. Both went on to compete at Oregon State University and Kambria, who graduated in 2006 after a high school career that included four straight trips to state in cross-country and two in track, improved significantly in making that jump.
She has been one of the region’s top female triathletes in recent years, competing at national and international championship events.
Cassandra ran track at OSU before going on to compete for NCAA Division II San Francisco School of Art University, where she was named all-PacWest Conference in 2010.
Kambria Schumacher said her sister can offer a lot to Sweet Home’s runners from “her experience and knowledge, all her years of running.”
“She’s had her share of little injuries, dealing with adversity,” she said. “The mental part of running is huge. Being able to deal with that is incredibly important and she is able to communicate that to the kids.”
Sweet Home will open its season Saturday, Sept. 7, at the Ultimook Race at Hydrangea Ranch in Tillamook. The schedule will be pretty much the same as last year’s except they will compete at the Celtic Invite in Keizer on Oct. 12 instead of the Paul Mariman Invitational at Philomath. Schumacher said an advantage of competing at Keizer is they will get to see Woodburn, which is not typically present in most of Sweet Home’s competitions.
This year’s Oregon West district championships will be Nov. 2, hosted by Stayton at the Stayton Middle School Nature Trails.
Overall, she said, the Huskies arrived for fall camp in “decent shape,” particularly “the ones who are going to be fighting for varsity spots.”
“They’ve been doing a lot of hill workouts right now, increasing their strengths,” Schumacher said. “It’s been a hard two weeks for them, but they’re enjoying it because they know what it’ll give them in terms of goals as a team.
“They’re motivated, which is one of the biggest factors.”