Olivia Johnson set a course record Thursday, Sept. 30, at the Harrier’s Challenge at Schwartz Park in Cottage Grove to lead the Sweet Home girls to their third cross-country win of the season.
Johnson finished the course, which includes a run up the steep face of the dam in the park that requires most runners to slow to a walk, in 20:38, beating the record of 20:52 set in 2005 by Lauren Zaludek, who now runs for the University of Oregon.
“It was just a dominating run,” Coach Billy Snow said of Johnson’s effort, which was nearly 1:40 faster than the second-place finisher, Emily Svendsen-McLean of Oakridge, who ran 22:11.
The boys finished fourth out of 13 teams with 104 points, behind Marshfield (100), Sisters (72) and Cottage Grove (58).
Nick Hall was Sweet Home’s top finisher, in fifth (18:30), behind winner Taylor Steele of Sisters (17:34) and third- and fourth-place finishers Alex Garcia (17:39) and Teagan Settelmeyer (18:13) of Cottage Grove from the Sky-Em League.
Cottage Grove’s other placers were eighth, 17th, 25th, 26th and 42nd. Sisters’ were sixth, 11th, 23rd, 26th, 34th and 64th.
Kyle Hummer was 12th for the Huskies (19:05), Daniel Danforth 13th (19:06), Brett King 36th (20:11), Alec Goetz 38th (20:14), Lorenzo Virgen 47th (20:27) and Joe Stroud 62nd (21:20).
“We were in the thick of it for third (place), but not close enough for second or first,” Snow said, adding that the Huskies are running close to Sisters and Cottage Grove among their top three, but “we just need to bring fourth through seventh up closer.
“This gives us a target to shoot at.”
Sweet Home scored 45 points to win the girls race, with Carissa Swanson third (22:41), Nicole Rasmussen fourth (22:44),
Paige Sanders 16th (24:17), Caroline Amendola 21st (25:05) and Jenna Kistner 29th (25:17).
Snow noted that Swanson, who has been battling some injuries, and “had a great race.”
He noted that Kistner finished in front of Sisters’ fifth and sixth runners, and the Sweet Home’s top JV finisher, Tashana Mithen (seventh, 26:41) would have finished ahead of the Outlaws’ seventh varsity runner, which gave the Huskies a big edge in the league competition on the team level.
The other JV finishers for Sweet Home were Liz Egbert (28:12) and Kimber Swanson (28:25).
In the boys JV race, freshman Justin Stoner was 10th in 21:27, Anson Davis 11th in 21:42 and freshman Chase Hutchins 58th in 25:28.
The Huskies will run on a flat, fast course for the first time in weeks this Saturday, Oct. 9, at 1 p.m. at the Paul Mariman Invitational at Philomath, where they get a chance to face some of the best 4A teams in the state.
On the girls side, Banks, Cascade, Hidden Valley, La Salle, Scappoose and Siuslaw are set to be there, all of them, along with the Huskies, potential medalists at state this year.
Those teams also include some of the top 4A runners in the state, which will give Johnson, Carissa Swanson and Rasmussen a chance to see how they match up.
On the boys side, it looks to be a showdown between Philomath and LaSalle, both threats to win the state team title.
“We’re going to go down to see what we can do at Philomath,” Snow said.
“It’s a big, huge meet and it’s good competition. It’s going to be fun.”