Sweet Home’s inexperienced cross-country team didn’t quite make the impact the Huskies usually do at the 3 Course Challenge at Camp Rilea, north of Seaside Saturday, but two runners finished high in the standings.
Paige Sanders was 27th out of 389 runners, and fifth in Sweet Home’s division, in the girls moderate (5000-meter) race, and Jakob Hiett was 31st out of 513 runners in the boys difficult (5000-meter) race, finishing seventh in his division.
This year’s races involved some 3,000 runners from 53 Oregon high schools and 39 from Washington, along with Huntington Beach Edison from Southern California and Punahou from Hawaii.
“The kids had fun,” Coach Billy Snow said. “I thought we had a good meet. We came away pretty unscathed.”
Hailey Hummer, who is battling some tendonitis, is the only runner with an injury serious enough to force her to cut down on her running, Snow said.
This week the Huskies will head to Cottage Grove Thursday for the Harrier’s Challenge, which includes a run up the face of the dam at Schwarz Park and will be the first meet this season to include all six Sky-Em teams.
“We haven’t run an easy course yet,” Snow said. “People can run up this one but it’s not flat. I told the kids that this will be our last hard course. After that they get flatter and faster and we can see where we’re at.
Sweet Home Results
3-Course Challenge
4500-Meter Easy Course Boys (460 Runners): (125) Ian Wingo 18:32; (196) Nick Mattson 19:57; (260) Robert Gourley 21:07; (353) Nick Dadey 23:22; (374) Trevor Melson 24:11; (435) Mark Taraski 28:21.
4500-Meter Easy Course Girls (395 Runners): (309) Sierrah Owen 29:31; (328) Kayla Daniels 30:16; (350) Emilie Rice 31:09; (387) Maria Daniels 37:09.
5000-Meter Moderate Course Boys Results (555 Runners): (141) Daniel Danforth 23:27; (156) Alex Seitz 23:46; (192) David Johnson 24:17.
5000-Meter Moderate Course Girls Results (389 Runners): (27) Paige Sanders 25:39; (151) Sierra Swanson 29:12; (297) Candalynn Johnson 34:12.
5000-Meter Hard Course Boys Results (513 Runners): (31) Jakob Hiett 21:11; (398) Saul Jones 27:56.