Scott Swanson
Nick Hall had been forced to drop out of several cross-country races earlier this season because of light-headedness and heat exhaustion.
So when he lined up at the start of the boys varsity Sky-Em district championship race Thursday, Oct. 27, he was just hoping to place in the top five – high enough to make the state championships this Saturday.
Instead, Hall, a senior, found himself in a pack with teammates Daniel Danforth and Jakob Hiett, and Sisters’ Brandon Pollard and Cottage Grove’s Teagan Settlemeyer, with half a mile to go in the 5000-meter race.
Jakob Hiett, left, and Daniel Danforth, right, give teammate Nick Hall some support after he won the Sky-Em district title Oct. 27 at Lane CC.
“With 800 meters to go I knew I could win because I’m a sprinter and the rest of those guys aren’t,” said Hall, who also won a district title as a sophomore when Sweet Home was in the Val-Co League. “It felt great.”
He finished in 17:11, with Danforth right behind in 17:18 and Hiett fourth in 17:21.
Hall wore sunglasses for the first time in his career, on Coach Billy Snow’s suggestion, he said, adding that they helped him stay relaxed during the race, which has been a problem for him.
On the girls side, sophomore Nicole Rasmussen had her own concerns. She’d gotten bottled up in the pack in her last race, the Country Fair Classic at Elmira, and had lost badly to Sisters sophomore Zoe Falk, who was clearly going to be her top competition.
“I was scared of Zoe,” Rasmussen said. “I was really nervous because last time she finished ahead of me.”
Once she started running, though, Rasmussen did what she had to. She and Falk ran side by side for most of the race, after breaking away from the rest of the field just after the one-mile mark and Rasmussen broke into the lead in the last half mile, beating Falk by about 100 meters – 21 seconds – at the finish line, in 19:55.
“When I crossed the finish line, that’s when I knew I had it,” said Rasmussen, whose only loss to Falk in four races this season was at Elmira. “I really wanted to win. It was a difficult race – painful, but it was worth it.”
Sisters won both the girls and boys team titles, as Falk led a 2-3-4-5-7 finish by the Outlaw girls, for a close-to-perfect score of 21. But Sweet Home’s girls were second and qualified for a state berth, finishing with 52 points behind Paige Sanders’ sixth-place finish (21:54). Elmira was third (82) in a tight race with Cottage Grove (83), while Junction City and La Pine didn’t have the five runners needed to score in the girls varsity race.
Sanders was followed by Kimber Swanson, 13th in 24:17, Sarah Wyatt (14th, 24:24), Tashana Mithen (20th, 26:35) and AnneMarie Miller (28th, 28:31). The girls were short a runner because their two of their normal varsity runners, Laura Hoy and Trysta Lewelling, were sick and injured.
Sanders, who is a junior but has more experience in high school cross-country than any of the other girls on the team, said she was happy with the result.
“Everybody did really well,” she said. “A lot of people did better than they were supposed to do. Next year we’re going to do better.”
Snow also appreciated the results, considering that he lost three-time district champion Olivia Johnson and four-time all-league first team pick Carissa Swanson to graduation in June and started this year with four returnees, three with varsity experience.
“Considering what we lost last year and the newness of the group we had at the beginning of this year, they’ve come a lot further than I expected,” he said. “Paige and Kimber really improved this year and Teshana was a JV runner last year. I think there’s more to be had there if she puts in the miles. She’s a strong runner.”
Snow also noted that Rasmussen is the fifth straight district champion for Sweet Home – a streak beginning with Amanda Basham’s win in 2007 and continuing with Johnson in 2008-10.
“That’s kind of cool,” he said.
On the boys side, sophomore Ian Wingo finished 23rd (19:48), followed by Nick Mattson (25th, 20:04) and David Johnson (28th, 20:29).
Behind Sisters (41 points), Cottage Grove also qualified for state with 44 points, followed by Sweet Home (55), La Pine (98), Elmira (140) and Junction City (154).
“As a whole, we ran well,” Snow said. “I can’t call it a disappointing day. It’s unfortunate the guys didn’t qualify. It’s not that we ran poorly. Just the opposite. But Cottage Grove just ran lights-out. They almost caught Sisters.”
Hall said his win could just as easily have gone to Danforth, who led much of the race and whom Hall credited with leading the Sweet Home boys to three state individual berths.
“Daniel was a big part of it,” he said. “He helped me out. A lot of my success was because of him. I would have been just as happy if Daniel had won. The team did well. The guys finished strong.” He said he made one “horrible” mistake, indulging in a plate of spaghetti before the race, for which he paid the price after he crossed the finish line.
“It was Dianne’s (Rasmussen, Nicole’s mother) spaghetti,” Hall said. “I couldn’t resist.”
In the junior varsity competition, Candalynn Johnson placed 11th for the girls (30:27) and Sierrah Owen was 13th (30:53). For the boys, Ryan Blackwell was 30th (25:04) and Trevor Melson finished 33rd (27:17).
With the three boys and the girls team headed for state, Snow said he expects some of the Huskies to finish high.
“Teamwise, I think if the girls can finish in the top 10, that will be pretty good,” he said. “I think Sisters is a trophy team – maybe No. 1.”
Sisters lost to Scappoose at the Philomath Paul Mariman Invitational, but the Outlaws were missing some runners and in a comparison based strictly on times, which can be quite unreliable in cross-country because all courses differ in difficulty and conditions can vary widely, Sisters trails just Klamath Union, which has the prohibitive favorite individual winner in defending champion Alisha Luna, a junior who’s run 18:13 this year. She may be pushed by Sierra Brown of Hidden Valley, who is the only real member of her varsity team this year, after the Mustangs placed second in the team competition last year, who has run 18:21 – far ahead of the rest of the field. Rasmussen’s best time is 19:24, sixth-best in the state this season, but she has beaten three of the five runners above her in head-to-head meetings.
On the boys side, “Daniel and Nick can run in the top 14. That will be quite an accomplishment if they do,” Snow said. “Neither is better. They’re both the same in ability.
“The goal for Jakob is to be the top freshman at the state meet.”
Hiett will likely have to beat freshman Shane Crofoot of Hidden Valley, who ran 16:27 at the Skyline League championship meet, but only ran 17:14 at the Country Fair Classic, where Hiett ran 16:49. Seth Campbell of Siuslaw is the other freshman to run a faster time than Hiett this year, 16:31 at the Far West League championships, and ran 17:11 at the Paul Mariman Invitational, where Hiett ran 17:35.
Snow pointed out that nobody PR’d on the Sky-Em district course at LCC last week. The state race will be held on a different course at the college.
“That was not a PR course or a PR kind of day,” he said.
“Jakob’s been quite remarkable in what he’s been able to accomplish as a freshman.”
Gates open for the state meet at 8 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 5, with the girls 4A race beginning at 11:15 a.m. and the boys at 11:50. Tickets are $8 for adults, $5 for students and are good for all races.