Nicole Rasmussen won the second meet of her high school career and the Husky girls placed second at the 18-team Harrier’s Challenge in Cottage Grove Thursday, Sept. 29.
The boys placed fifth, with Nick Hall leading the way with an individual fifth-place finish in 18:31.
Rasmussen ran a patient race as Creswell freshman Olivia Powell blasted away at the start and led by about 30 seconds at one point in the race, Coach Billy Snow said.
“She just bided her time and reeled her in,” he said of the sophomore, who ended up winning in 21:13, to Powell’s 21:52. “Nicole has learned to run smart. She’s learned to push herself and not wait and depend on someone like (now-graduated) Olivia (Johnson).”
The Huskies ran well on both sides after a tough week of workouts, Snow said.
“They were dog-tired. I ran them hard. They came back and raced and they did a pretty good job of it.”
Pleasant Hill won the girls race with 90 points to Sweet Home’s 113.
“What I saw was a good competitive team effort,” Snow said of the girls.
Paige Sanders was sixth in 23:23, Sarah Wyatt was 20th in 25:44, Kimber Swanson was 23rd in 26:30, Tashana Mithen was 51st in 30:18 and Laura Hoy was 57th in 31:29.
“We got kind of a nice surprise from Sarah,” Snow said. “She was able to run without an asthma attack and she showed her ability.”
Behind Hall, Daniel Danforth was eighth for the boys in 18:50, Jakob Hiett was 16th in 19:24, Ian Wingo was 53rd in 22:14 and Nick Mattson was 54th in 22:35.
Snow said complete team results were not available following the meet, but he said Cottage Grove finished “not too far ahead” of the Huskies. He said for the Huskies to be competitive at the district level, the fifth through seventh runners are going to need to move up.
Cottage Grove had its fifth runner finish in 30th place, well ahead of Sweet Home’s fourth (53rd place), though if David Johnson had not been out sick, the Huskies would likely have had a fourth runner finishing farther up.
“We definitely had a gap there,” Snow said. “But we were definitely missing David. He would have been there behind Jakob. Jakob continues to run well for a first-year kid.”
AnneMarie Miller was fourth in the girls JV 5000-meter race, finishing in 30:35. Candalynn Johnson was 11th (32:19), Sierrah Owen 20th (36:05) and Elise Holden 21st (36:24).
Saul Jones led the Huskies in the JV race, finishing 25th in 24:38, Trevor Melson was 41st in 32:07 and Ryan Blackwell was 46th in 35:51.
The Huskies will run again Saturday at the Paul Mariman Invitational at Philomath. JV races begin at 1 p.m. with varsity following.
Snow said a lot of his team have been ill and they’ve been working hard, running tired.
“I think we’ve grown as a team,” he said. “We’ve gotten better. We know what we have to do as a team. I like where we’re at. We’ve got a shot. When we started we had not a clue because there were so many new kids. But they’ve stepped up and done the job and the veterans are doing what they need to too.”