The Sweet Home girls placed third behind Cassandra Schumacher’s individual win and the boys placed fourth at the Cottage Grove Invitational cross-country meet Thursday, Sept. 28.
Cottage Grove won the boys race with 47 points, beating Marshfield (65), McKenzie (69) and Sweet Home 99.
The Husky girls, primarily on the strength of Schumacher’s finish, placed third with 81 points behind Marshfield (27) and Elmira (59).
Jess Keys led the boys with an 11th-place finish in a field of 81 in 18:48, followed by Huskies Robert Callagan (14th, 19:16), Jake Smith (21st, 19:50), Josh Rice (26th, 20:07), Peter VanDerlip (27th, 20:10), Ramiro Santana (30th, 20:30) and Dallin Holden (34th, 20:50).
Land Florek (19:46), Nikki Smith (21:06) and Bandon Rice (21:06) swept the top three spots in the junior varsity 5000-meter course. Also finishing for the Huskies were Byron Sanders (21:36), Dustin Collman (21:39) and David Rinehart (27:02).
The guys were competitive, but they ran kind of flat,” coach Billy Snow said. “They’ve had a long two-week stretch. This just wasn’t a good race. Hopefully we’ll see it this week.”
For the varsity girls, Schumacher ran 21:33 to win, pulling away from the rest of teh field after the first mile to finish nearly a minute ahead of the second-place girl.
Trautwein was 22nd in the field of 56 runners, in 25:40, followed by Ashley Danielson (25th, 26:00), Staci Grove (33rd, 27:49), Jill Mahler (45th, 31:21) and Lacey Hightower (55th, 35:42).
Afton Rodgers ran 35:00 in the girls JV 5000.
“The girls are running well as a group,” Snow said, noting that Danielson has been nursing some leg injuries she sustained in the weight room. “Staci and Jessica ran well and this is Lacey’s first time running the varsity race.”
After competing Tuesday at Junction City, the Huskies are scheduled to run Saturday at noon in Philomath.