It was tantalizing – just the thought that St. Mary’s Academy might not run their varsity runners, who are one of the state’s premier powers. The team would soon head for California, where they would compete Saturday in the Stanford Invitational. The surprise came shortly before the gun went off and the team toed the line at the start. The only break that rival runners received was that the team did not go out like gang-busters, as they held back a bit. Of course it would only delay the inevitable and at the finish SMA runners were front and center.
How strong were they one might ask and we would note that their leader Paige Rice, who was obviously not out to set any world land-speed records, finished in 19:43, which was only fourteen seconds off the course record set by West Linn’s Taylor Nowlin. Taking second behind her team mate was Bella Gazzola, who ran 20:47. Rachel Crawford of Oregon City & Martin of Gresham ran times of 21:05 & 21:09 to secure third & fourth, while Celeste Raymond of SMA earned fifth in 21:25. Helen McDonald of Gresham claimed sixth in 21:28 and was followed by St. Mary’s runners Carly Januzzi & Julia Tawney. Gresham’s Erica Keathley placed ninth and was followed in turn by SMA runners Mickayla Phillis & Sophie Kurschner. Krissy Peterson of Canby led her team with a twelfth place finish in 21:40, while Julia Boyd-Helm led West Linn with her time of 21:44, which was good for thirteenth.
The guys did not have the problem, which the girls did, and they were left to an old-fashioned duel of equals. Nathan Meeker of Oregon City took advantage of that situation and ran away with the victory. His time of 17:01 saw him finish twelve seconds ahead of West Linn’s Connor Cushman. Bradley Laughlin of Gresham earned third with 17:17 and was followed by his team mate Dillon George. West Linn moved back in the team picture, when Dylan George (17:24) & Derek Fieldhouse (17:36) placed fifth & sixth. Morgan Webber of Canby was just three seconds behind Fieldhouse in seventh place to lead that team’s scorers. Tyler Griffin of West Linn took eighth in 17:44 to pretty much wrap up the team victory & Morgan Benson of Gresham (17:55) garnered ninth. Tenth place went Cameron Huffman of Canby, while Chris Durant of Oregon City secured eleventh in 17:59. Braden Krellwitz of West Linn wrapped up the victory with his twelfth place finish, while Trevor Hammock added icing on the cake for the Lions. The final team scoring saw West Linn triumph with a low of 33 points over the 44 for Oregon City. Canby topped Gresham 92 to 93 in the unofficial scoring, which did not exclude runners over the standard seven runners.