After 10 days of rest, Sweet Home’s cross-country boys were ready to go at the Happy Hustle hosted by Corvallis at the Crystal Lake Sports Park Wednesday, Oct. 22.
Nine of the 11 runners for the Huskies posted personal bests, some of them rather large, and there were some big barriers broken across the board.
“I was pleased with all of our races throughout,” said Coach Dave Martin. “I thought we competed very well, but I think our boys had a particularly good day.
“The three boys who didn’t get PRs had the second-fastest times they’ve ever had in their lives. It was incredibly good running. They competed so well.”
The boys varsity finished sixth out of 21 teams, with 192 points. Stayton was third with 130 and Philomath was seventh with 205, while Newport, which was missing two of its top runners, was 11th (331).
Ryker Burr finished 26th in the field of 158 runners for the Huskies (17:33.1), followed by Elijah Rodriguez, 29th in a 10-second PR of 17:35.6, Acen Webber in 36th an 11-second PR of 17:53.5, Evan Knight 44th in a big 1:11 PR of 18:03.5; and Louis Kistner 58th in a 52-second PR of 18:12.9.
The event allowed coaches to enter 10 runners in the varsity races, so Martin took that opportunity to try to sort out who should be Sweet Home’s seventh runner at the district meet on Nov. 1 at Philomath.
Also finishing for Sweet Home were Conner Spencer in 19:30.7, Noah Strawn in a 50-second PR of 19:46.6, Wes Goff in a 21-second PR of 20:02.2, and Hudson Ogden in 20:38.4.
Philomath senior Leo Pausch won the individual title in 15:43.9, ahead of Santiam Christian’s Diego Zambrano (15:54.3), while Santiam Christian freshman Tytus Janssen was fourth in 16.20.9. Stayton sophomore Brandon Wagar was seventh (16:35.8).
“This is the first time in my coaching, this second time (at Sweet Home), that I’ve had three boys in the 17s and two more in the low 18s,” Martin said. “Our fifth guy was faster than anybody except Ryker has run for me. They’re hungry, they’ve done the work.
“Louie Kistner and Evan Knight had phenomenal races.
“Noah had an exceptional race – he improved by 50 seconds. Obviously, he’s the right guy for No. 7. He’s hot right now.”
For the varsity girls, Emma Whitton was sixth in the field of 115 runners in 19:25.6, behind Philomath’s Cassidy Smart, who was first in 18:12.5, and Newport’s Alexandra Curtis, fourth in 19:03.0.
Cassie Spencer was second for the Huskies, finishing 28th in 21:20.1, a half-second PR for the distance, followed by Noelle Helfrich, 80th in a 14-second PR of 23:33.6; Madison Cuillo, 91st in a 19-second PR of 24:10.8; Pyper Hall 95th in 24:25.1 and Marian Helfrich, 96th in 24:26.0.
The Huskies, who were missing McKenzie Miller, who was ill, were 11th out of 15 teams, scoring 259 points. Philomath was second with 83, behind winner Crescent Valley (62), with Stayton third (83) and Newport eighth (213).
The girls competed really well,” Martin said. “We only two PR’s and they weren’t big, but the other girls were not way far off. I was very pleased.”
The junior varsity boys didn’t field enough runners to score, but Bentley Uhlry finished in a 35-second PR of 20:48.0, followed by Ryder Farris in a 53-second PR of 20:56.4 and Eli Adams in a 35-second PR of 22:27.4.
“Eli Adams improved his seasonal PR by about a minute and finally hit his lifetime PR, which he set last year at the district meet,” Martin said. “I’m just super impressed.”
For the girls, Annabelle Morris was 19th in 25:17.4, a seasonal best by 2½ minutes, in a field of 88 runners in her second race of the year, since she is doubling with soccer. McKenzie Ohlheiser was 38th (27:04.0), Delanie Pratt was 47th (27:39.6) and Lexi Lee was 53rd in a 2:46 personal best of 28:12.9.
“Lexi’s just been working hard and so exciting to see her run time like she’s been running in practice,” Martin said. “Some of the other girls who were in the race, if they didn’t PR, it wasn’t like they were horrible.”
Zoie Allison, Nevaeh Mize and Kali Vogel all ran the first two miles of the JV race, but were instructed by Martin to pull out at that point because they are recovering from injuries.
The Huskies are surging, but they have stiff competition awaiting at the district meet.
“We are competing well,” Martin said, “but Philomath and Stayton are strong on both the boys and girls side. Our challenge is to get by one of those two teams or get the wildcard spot (for state) as the 13th alternative team.”
“We’ll take care of our own business first. We’re going to do what we can do.”
The district meet will be at Philomath High School Saturday, Nov. 1, on the same course as the Paul Mariman Invitational, which the Huskies ran on Oct. 11. JV boys will run at 10:30 a.m., followed by JV girls at 11:05, the varsity boys at 11:45 and the varsity girls at 12:20 p.m.