Sweet Home cross-country Coach Billy Snow has been to many meets in his 30-some years in the sport, but he’s never seen every runner pull off a personal best time on the same day.
But the Huskies did that for him Wednesday, Oct. 16, at the Country Fair Classic held at Orchard Point State Park on Fern Ridge Reservoir – PR’s across the board.
“We really ran well,” Snow said. “That’s not surprising because we finally got onto a flat, fast course. But I’ve never had that happen. We run the Country Fair every year and we’re always tapering at this time. We’ve never had everybody have a day like that. It was amazing.”
Jakob Hiett finished fourth, only the second time this year that he hasn’t been the winner, but he was matched against some of the best runners in the 6A and 5A divisions in the largest competition – 400 runners – Elmira Coach Brad Bellingham, who organizes the annual meet, has ever hosted.
Hiett was fourth in a personal best of 15:50, a 25-second PR and the first time this season he’s dipped below 16 minutes. That was 10 seconds behind Roseburg senior Kenny Freeman (15:40) and Sheldon’s TJ Wright (15:43) and Jackson Mestler (15:43 in a field of 236 runners.
Sophomore Dyut Fetrow of Sisters was the closest league finisher behind Hiett, in 24th (16:36) with teammate Brandon Pollard, who is normally the Outlaws’ top runner, right behind in 16:38.
Nicole Rasmussen was eighth in a similarly strong field of 202 girls, running 19:30 as Creswell junior Olivia Powell won in 18:22, followed by Shalen Crook of Marshfield (18:27).
“Nicole ran a good race,” Snow said.
Rasmussen was running with Sisters’ Zoe Falk about halfway through the race, but Falk fell off the pace and did not finish, whereupon, Rasmussen caught up with Cottage Grove’s Breanna Wright about a quarter mile past the two-mile mark of the 3.1-mile course, then “just pulled away,” Snow said. Wright finished in 19:46.
Snow said Rasmussen actually ran 19:24 as a sophomore at the Country Fairgrounds, the normal venue for the competition, which was moved this year because of problems with mud, but that course was later found to be 100 meters short.
“Given that, that was definitely a PR on Wednesday,” he said.
Dana Hiett was second for the girls in 22:07, a PR of 1:09, good for 70th place, after running down teammate Sierra Swanson on the home stretch. Swanson was 75th in 22:10 a 40-second PR. Kayleen Keeney was 83rd in 22:33 – a 47-second personal best in her rookie year of running and almost exactly three minutes faster than her first 5K at the beginning of the season.
“Those three girls behind Nicole – Sierra, Dana and Kayleen, man they’re putting it together great,” Snow said. “They’re right there with each other. It doesn’t matter who’s in the lead. They just stick together. The gap between them never gets that big. Whoever happens to be in front, the other two are just going with her.”
Maria Daniels was the Huskies’ fifth runner, finishing 173rd in 26:20 – a PR of almost two minutes; and Mami Sakamoto was 189th in 28:32. Snow noted that Daniels’ finish gave the Huskies a leg up over a team that had beaten them the previous weekend, with normal fifth runner Natasha Rasmussen, who is usually faster, in the line-up.
“Even with Maria as fifth runner, we beat North Bend, which we lost to at Rock n River,” he said.
For the boys, Ian Wingo was 63rd in 17:38, a 22-second PR, followed by Chace Hutchins, 101st in 18:18, a 35-second PR; Issac Justham, who was close behind in 105th at 18:24 – a 32-second PR that made him the ninth freshman finisher and the third from 4A schools; Robert Gourley, 154th in 19:17 – his first time under 20 minutes; Stephen Bishop a step behind in 155th in 19:18 – a 19-second PR; followed by Joseph Rasmussen, 178th in 19:50 – a 33-second PR; and Julian Hesberg 182nd in 19:57 – a 39-second PR.
“That was just a fast race,” Snow said. “Our guys matched up really good with Elmira. Ian was just behind their top two guys and Isaac and Chace ran a good race. Robert showed us something and I think Stephen can move up little bit. That will make a difference at the district meet.”
Sweet Home’s boys finished 14th with 335 points out of 29 teams, with Sisters sixth (222), Elmira 16th (377), Cottage Grove 21st (501) and Junction City 24th (548). Sheldon won with 29 points, followed by Roseburg (89), Marist (115), Crater (135) and Marshfield (190) in fifth.
The girls were 12th in a field of 24 teams, with 313 points. Crater was first with 70 points, followed by Sheldon (79), Philomath (117), Roseburg (151) and Sisters (177). Elmira was the closest Sky-Em team behind the Huskies, in 21st place with 434.
In the junior varsity races, Aaron Blanchard was 127th in 21:51 and Nick Tolman was 158th in 22:37 for the boys, and Sierra Owen was 105th for the girls in 29:59 – a four-minute improvement over this season for her, Snow said.
The Country Fair was the final tune-up for Sweet Home, which will compete Thursday, Oct. 24, at the Sky-Em District championships at Lane Community College.
Snow said the Huskies have a good chance at qualifying for the state meet on both sides, though they won’t be beating a strong Sisters team that looks to be a threat for both boys and girls trophies.
“We’re not going to catch Sisters,” he said. “We have to put ourselves in the positions and see what we can do. We expect to get through. That’s the attitude. Don’t be cocky. Just take care of business, give it your best shot.”
The good news for Sweet Home is the Huskies are running strong and unusually injury-free. Snow said maybe the summer work his runners put in is paying off.
“I think that’s part of why we’re seeing, why we’re not seeing injuries. When we started cranking up the effort after the build-up phase, we don’t have shin splints going on this year, this and that. If they are, nobody’s saying anything.
“We’re a small group. We don’t have a whole lot of depth, so we have to stay healthy.”