Freshman Emma Whitton became Sweet Home’s first state meet qualifier in cross-country since 2018 with a second-place finish at the Oregon West Conference Championships, hosted by Philomath Saturday, Nov. 2.
It was a day of triumph and, well, tragedy for the young Huskies, who have steadily improved over the past few years after the program reached a very low ebb following the COVID schools shutdown.
The Sweet Home boys team finished fourth after being projected to be fifth, and sophomore Ryker Burr just missed a state berth with an eighth-place finish, after being projected to finish 26th.
“As I look at it, we ran good races all day,” said Coach Dave Martin, in his third year with the Huskies after returning following a 22-year hiatus from the program, during which he coached at Oregon Institute of Technology in Klamath Falls. “The kids were working hard, trying, putting good effort in. We ran so many good races, even though the times don’t reflect it. I’m really pleased with that.”
The deep disappointment of the day was junior McKenzie Miller’s eighth-place finish. Miller had been ill during the week preceding the race and was clearly not 100 percent on Saturday, finishing behind girls she has beaten all year. Her placing matched her finish last year, when she missed the state meet by one spot and she vowed then to do everything she could to make it into state this year.
“McKenzie’s race was just a heartbreak,” Martin said. “I don’t know any other kid that I’ve worked with, certainly in the last three years and even over the course of my career, who has worked harder and improved the way she has. Then, to get sick the week of districts. She’s never been worse than fourth place against those competitors. She fought so hard.”
Whitton spent most of the girls race in the lead, ahead of Philomath senior Adele Beckstead, last year’s runner-up. Beckstead surged past Whitton on the home stretch to win in 19:27.64, with Whitton finishing in 19:29.01. It was the second district title for Beckstead, who also won as a sophomore.
“Emma ran almost an identical race at Cottage Grove,” Martin said, referring to Sweet Home’s final regular-season meet, in which Beckstead finished a step ahead of Whitton. “She made the girl from Philomath work very hard just to beat her.”
Although the Philomath course is largely flat, Whitton said she tried to take advantage of the small hills on the path they were running, especially after Beckstead briefly took the lead midway through the race.
“I knew I was going to catch her because I’m good at hills, I’m fast on hills,” Whitton said afterwards. She said she accomplished what she wanted to in the race and is looking ahead to the state meet.
“I’m hoping to get top 10 at state.”
Whitton has the 13th-fastest time (19:23.80) among 4A girls going into the state meet, but since cross-country courses differ widely in terms of how “fast” they are, only head-to-head meetings can truly determine how runners actually match up. The top two ranked runners in the 4A division are both from La Grande, with times just over 18 minutes, and Beckstead is in third place behind them with a personal best of 18:33.20.
“I think Emma may benefit with having other runners at state meet,” Martin said. “It will not be just her and Adele. She’s come a long way because she wouldn’t have tried leading some of those other races earlier. She’s made huge strides in confidence and performance.”
Miller’s time on Saturday was 21:05.09, well short of the 19:43.00 she ran earlier this season at the Northwest Classic, which was held on what is essentially the same course at Lane Community College that this Saturday’s state meet will be run. The 4A girls are scheduled to run at 11:45 a.m. Saturday. Unlike most cross-country competitions, admission will be charged for the state meet. Tickets are $12 for adults, $6 for students and are available at the gate or at www.osaa.org/tickets.
Whitton is the first Sweet Home runner since Jessy Hart to qualify for state. Hart qualified as a sophomore with a fifth-place finish in 2018, but chose not to run in the state meet. She also finished seventh twice, but the OSAA qualifying standard during those years was that only individuals who finished in the top five, who were not already on one of the two team qualifiers from each league, could compete at state. The individual qualifier standard has more recently been changed back to the top seven district finishers, which is what it was before the OSAA changed it to five for a number of years, angering many in the cross-country community.
The last boys qualifier for Sweet Home was Jakob Hiett, who won the state championship in 2014.
Philomath won the girls district title for the fourth straight year, with 20 points, over second-place Stayton (59), Newport (81) and Cascade (86). Because Sweet Home did not have five varsity runners, the Huskies didn’t score as a team.
Burr led the boys to a fourth-place finish with a 115-123 win over Cascade, which had been projected to finish ahead of the Huskies. Newport, which is the defending state champion, led by second-place finisher Connor Brown (16:41.32) won the boys district title for the second straight year with 28 points, ahead of Philomath (44) and Stayton (67). Philomath junior Leo Pausch was the individual district champion, finishing in 16:38.43.
Burr, a sophomore, finished with a 50-second PR in 17:57.6 on a course on which he and freshman teammate Evan Malabago were the only boys in the entire varsity field to run personal bests.
“Coming in here today, my goal was to get to state,” said Burr, who blew by three competitors in the home stretch. “I was very close to that but I had a really strong race. I came out very strong in the first mile. My goal was to get our best effort as a team and we really accomplished that. We ran a lot faster than we were expected to.
“The course was very muddy. The times were very slow. Most people ran a minute slower than their PR.”
Martin described Burr’s performance as “phenomenal.”
“His fastest time coming in had him placing 26th and for him to be eighth, he jumped over 18 guys who had run faster than him over the course of the year. It was a great race.
“It underscores again what I’ve seen in Ryker last year and this year: When he sets his mind on something, he gets it done. He told me he was going to try to get to state and he missed it by one place. He’s one of the toughest kids I’ve ever had the privilege of coaching.”
Second among the varsity finishers was freshman Evan Knight, 24th in 19:57.76, closely followed by the rest of the Huskies: Malabago in 20:39.33, a seven-second PR; freshman Acen Webber in 20:45.09; sophomore Conner Spencer in 21:02.57; freshman Louis Kistner in 21:15.86; and freshman Wes Goff in 21:16.34.
In the boys JV race, the Huskies didn’t have enough runners to score as a team, but junior Keagan Vogel was 10th in 21:04.42, freshman Noah Strawn was 16th in 22:32.51; freshman Eli Adams was 21st in 22:52.82 – a nearly 4-minute PR; and senior Boden Sayer was 29th in 26:38.74, a 24-second personal best.
“The biggest race of the day was Eli’s,” Martin said. He went from 25:02 to 22:52.”
The coach said Adams ran with three other boys from other schools who helped each other.
“Eli told me, ‘If someone would push ahead, we would stay with them and if someone fell back, we’d encourage him.’
“Noah (Strawn) didn’t have anybody to chase. He was out in the middle of nowhere by himself, but he still ran a good time on that course.”
The coach also credited Sayers for a lifetime personal best in the final race of his career.
In the girls JV race, sophomore Noelle Helfrich was 11th in 26:35.34; and sophomore Madison Looney was 19th in 39:18.63.
“Both of our JV girls competed real hard,” Martin said. “They ran tough.
“We ran well, across the board, all day long – even the people who didn’t PR. For the most part, it was a good day.”