Top cross country runners, finish third, first, set PRs in Portland

Sweet Home’s Tanner Sayers was third overall in his cross country race Saturday, Sept. 30, and Summer Hicks finished first in hers at the Nike Portland XC at Portland Meadows Racetrack.

Sweet Home placed 23rd out of 35 teams in the boys varsity Division 1 race, which was the only one the Huskies had more than five runners in.

The giant meet included more than 100 teams, from all over the West. It was Sweet Home’s first time participating in the event.

Sayers, a junior, finished third in the Division 1 meet, running a personal best of 16:19 on the flat, fast course – nearly 30 seconds faster than his previous best at 5000 meters. He was nine seconds behind Sisters’ Jordan Pollard, who ran in a different division on the same course.

“Tanner blew his PR away again,” Coach Kambria Schumacher said, noting that a majority of the Huskies got lifetime PR’s. He’s doing really well. It’s looking like he could take district and place at state.”

Sayers is “pretty excited” about how the season is going, she said.

Freshmen Jessy Hart and Hicks both had PR’s, Hart running 22:49 to break the 23-minute mark for the first time. Hicks, who has yet to run a non-hilly course at the 5000 distance, ran 13:46 for 3000.

Schumacher said Hart was “really excited about getting that time. She’s definitely capable of 21s.”

Other finishers for the boys varsity were Ricky Yunke, 127th in 19:05; Noah Taraksi, 146th in 19:28;

Cameron Taber, 129th in 19:31; Zach Zanona, 189th in 20:02; Noah Dinsfriend, 199th in 20:09; and Tristan Saultz, 197th in 20:09.

Zoe James ran 24:57 in her girls varsity race, behind Hart.

Eric Roddy posted a “huge” PR in his JV boys race with a 22:29, Schumacher noted. Jake Hindmarsh ran 21:58.1 in the senior JV race, Connor Ford clocked 21:08 in the sophomore race and Gavin Walberg finished in 20:38, just ahead of fellow freshman Tristan (20:47) in their JV race.

“Gavin and both the Tristans had big PRs,” Schumacher said.

The Huskies will run Saturday morning, Oct. 7, in the Harrier Classic at Bryant Park in Albany, which will include many teams from the Mid-Valley. Races start at 9:30 a.m. with the Frosh/Soph girls JV. The looped course is flat and fast; the boys meet record is 15:06.

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