With the district cross-country meet rapidly approaching, Sweet Home got a good sense of where it’s running among league teams at the Country Fair Classic held on the Country Fairgrounds outside Elmira Wednesday, Oct. 10.
All but La Pine were there and, although the Hawks boys are looking like contenders for the No. 2 spot at district behind Sisters, which has been dominant on both the boys and girls side in 2012, Sweet Home showed it might have enough to be competitive for a trip to state this year.
The Husky girls got a boost with the return of Nicole Rasmussen, last year’s district winner and sixth-placer at state, who moved back from North Dakota two weeks ago.
Rasmussen, whose training, Snow said, has been a little suspect due to the move and other factors, still managed to finish 15th out of the 199 runners, in 20:00.60, after running 19:24 last year.
Nicole Ramussen, third from left, beats most of the crowd off the line at the start.
The turf at the Country Fair is flat and almost springy and there are few tight turns, which lends itself to fast times. Thought last year’s course layout was significantly different than this year’s, the changes appeared to be simply geographical as it was still fast enough that five of Sweet Home’s seven varsity girls and six of the boys posted personal records, most of them significant improvements.
“It’s that time of the year; everybody’s starting to cut back,” Coach Billy Snow said. “A lot of people gear up for (Elmira). A lot of people kind of peak there. It’s got a reputation and kids expect to run fast there. They aren’t afraid to go for it.”
The length of the course at the Country Fair has been suspect some years, based on times, but Snow said the times he saw “were not only anything so outrageous that it made you wonder.”
Paige Sanders was 22nd among the girls in 20:36.28, a 25-second personal best, after a fast start. Sierra Swanson was 101st (23:00.67, a 1-minute PR for the freshman; Hailey Hummer was right behind in 23:03.13, a 1:12 PR for the senior in her first year of cross-country; Candalynn Johnson was 183rd (27:47.47); followed by Kayla Daniels 186th in 28:07.39, a 42-second PR; and Sierrah Owen, 191st in 29:13.37, a 1:05 PR.
Marist won the girls team competition with 111 points, just ahead of Sisters (112) and Marshfield (177). Sweet Home was 15th, with 337 points, among the 27 complete teams. Cottage Grove was 18th (374), Elmira was 20th (395) and Junction City was 26th (623).
Sophomore Gracie Todd of Sheldon (18:25.01) edged Hidden Valley senior Sierra Brown (18:26.36) for the individual girls title. Zoe Falk of Sisters was sixth in 19:33.48.
On the boys side, Jakob Hiett was 23rd overall for Sweet Home among 221 runners – the top finisher among underclassmen, in 16:27.66 – a 23-second PR on any course.
Sheldon took the boys team title with 55 points behind first-place finisher Jackson Darland (15:37.17). Hidden Valley was second (100), followed by Roseburg (104), Philomath (142) and Sisters (151) among the 27 full teams to score. The Huskies finished 16th (369) , ahead of Elmira (21st, 494) and Cottage Grove (22nd, 514).
Brandon Pollard of Sisters was the first Sky-Em finisher in sixth individually (16:09.53).
Daniel Danforth was second for the Huskies, 41st overall in 17:25.25 – a minute slower than his time over last year’s Country Fair course. Ian Wingo was 101st, in 18:34.68, a 40-second over the PR he set on last year’s course; Nick Mattson finished 138th (19:23.27, a two-second PR), Robert Gourley was 178th (20:23.62), a 19-second PR; Stephen Bishop was 181st (20:29.47), a five-second personal best; and Kyle Moore-McKay was 191st in 21:03.07, a one-minute best for him.
“The kids ran competitively against other schools,” Snow said. “Elmira had all their girls there and I think Cottage Grove was missing one.”
Looking ahead to the district meet, which begins at 2 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 25, at Lane Community College in Eugene, Snow said both the Sweet Home boys and girls are in the thick of it. Both would have placed second at Elmira behind Sisters among the Sky-Em teams that ran there.
On the girls side, Sweet Home would have scored 53 points, Cottage Grove 70 and Elmira 72.
“But that could swing so easily,” Snow said. “ All three of those teams are right there. Our first four on the girls side have to do their job. And the other three will be hugely important – they all need to be right there with each other so if can just pull each other along, we have a shot.”
On the boys side, normal fourth runner David Johnson was not at Elmira due to grades, but Snow said Friday it appeared things had been straightened out and Johnson would be eligible to run at district, where La Pine appears to be the Huskies’ biggest challenge behind Sisters, which looks to be the clear front-runner.
“The guys are right there,” he said. “The problem we face in a small meet is that both our boys and girls are almost better big-race teams because of our top runners. The question is where we need to be relative to the people we need to beat.
“Overall, the good thing is that when the kids go down there, they have a shot as a team.”