Husky runners 12th Saturday at the Three-Course Challenge at Newport
The Three-Course Challenge is a unique cross country race because there are three courses available to runners, Husky Coach Billy Snow explained of his squad’s Saturday outing.
“There’s an ‘easy’ course, a moderately hard course, and the designated hard course,” Coach Snow said. “Runners draw poker chips for the ‘right’ to run a specific course.”
This year’s races featured 78 schools in five different divisions, 5A or large schools all the way down to 1A small schools, Coach Snow said.
“Schools came from all over Oregon and Washington with several schools from California, including one from Los Angeles,” Coach Snow said.
Sweet Home was sandwiched in the middle with the 3A level schools. About 1,800 runners took part in the races. There are six races, a boys and a girls race for each course. A team’s score, at least for the 3A level, was determined by adding up the finish place of the top two finishers from the easy and moderate course and the top 3 finishers from the hard course.
The easy course might lack the hills of the other two courses but seems longer than a 5K. (None of the courses are measured.) The moderate course and hard course both have a “mudpit” where the National Guard floods a road for about 20-30 meters. The hard course had a few more hills tham did the moderate course but both were challenging.
“On the girls side, we were short one girls with two finishers on each course, so we took an incomplete score,” Coach Snow said. “On the boys side, we had the requisite number of runners and finished 12 out of the 17 schools in our division. It was also the first time that we topped Stayton this year which is one of the teams we are trying to catch from our conference.
Boys team scores–Division 3
1. Bellamine Prep, 253; 2. Columbia River High, 294; 3. Molalla, 559 4. Sequim, 596; 5. Taft, 617; 6. Henley, 800; 7. Astoria, 974; 8. Estacada, 975; 9. Tillamook, 1128; 10. North Valley, 1132; 11. Cascade, 1222; 12. Sweet Home, 1304; 13. Madras, 1341; 14. Stayton, 1342; 15. Cottage Grove, 1348; 16. Gladstone, 1440; 17. Hoquiam, 1599.
Sweet Home Results: Course, name, and overall place.
Easy Course
Boys (329 finishers)
Sam Bishop 110
Jake Smith 137
Girls (214 finishers)
Heidi Darden 147
Danyel Cranford 204
Moderate Course
Boys (361 finishers)
Peter VanDerlip 141
Dallin Holden 147
Alex Ritzman 157
Ryan Sipe 244
Girls (230 finishers)
Ashley Danielson 88
Heidi Wilson 168
Hard Course
Boys (403 finishers)
Jess Keys 184
Anthony Ertsgaard 198
Sam Crain 387
Girls (229 finishers)
Jessica Trautwein 124
Chelsea Hackworth 189