District Action In Portland Area

                                                             Mt. Hood Conference

        The races were held at Centennial and each team & individual race was won handily.  Defending 6A champion Paige Rice of St. Mary’s Academy had the best time of the day for all female runners with her clocking in 17:46.  For the record that time is the fastest of the three District races, she has claimed in her career and eight seconds superior to that of 2011.   Ellen Patterson followed her team mate with a solid 18:03 and then Kennedy Allen broke the SMA string with her time of 18:13.  Lacey Conner, also from St. Mary’s, added a fourth place finish in 18:20.   Kennedy Martin of Gresham led her team to State with her fifth place time of 18:33 and Kate Patterson of St. Mary’s followed in fifth with 19:02.   St. Mary’s Academy won the team battle with a low of 21 points, while Gresham had 77 to earn a trip to Eugene.   In 2009 & prior years the MHC was run at Sandy, so Paige’s time is a record, as far as I can tell and the course that Andrea Dettman, Lucy Whipps, Khalia Tidwell & Erin Bergmann ran that year was much tougher.  Paige noted that  "It was a great day of races
for our girls! Centennial is always one of our fastest courses of the season, so it's great to have that as a confidence booster going into state! Our entire varsity team PRed and we looked sharp, I can't wait to see what we can do come november 3rd!!"  I think many share the feeling, that the girls' 6A race will be something special to see both on an individual & a team aspect.

Paige Rice

      Kyle Thompson of Central Catholic is also a defending 6A champion and he improved his winning time from last year by two seconds with his mark of 15:24.  Jackson Haselnus of Barlow placed second with a fine 15:49 and his team will join him at lane Community College after placing second behind the Rams with 15:49.  Taylor Hybl of Centennial earned a trip to Eugene the hard way with his third place effort of 15:54.  Hybl had built a lead but appeared to suffer from dehydration problems late & Haselnus swept past him.   Hybl finished but went down after crossing the finish line & remained down for some time after that.    Sam Lomax of CC claimed fourth with 16:02 and Ian Stevens of Reynolds earned an individual berth in the State meet with his time of 16:06.  Daniel Thompson of Central catholic is only a freshman, yet he took sixth in 16:11.  Ram runners also swept 7^th & 8^th with Dante Dalla Gasperina (16:12) & Jean Baptiste Tooley (16:12) contributing to the Ram victory and its 26 point total.    Barlow had 53 points and Reynolds came in third with 6 points.   It also should be noted that the clouds let loose late in the guys race to complicate things a bit.

     The Rams ran their number six & seven runners in the JV and what follows is coach Dave Frank’s account of the action:

“Given that there were seven athletes with legitimate claims for varsity spots #6 & #7, the only seemingly objective way to decide was for those seven to run head to head in the junior varsity race. Our top five varsity runners would run in the varsity race – along with two solid backups.

The junior varsity race was first up, and the Rams wasted no time in getting to the front, senior JORDAN LANDSTROM taking the reins early. A large pack of Ram followed closely, led by Landstrom’s classmate ANDREW GREEN. Sophs GUNNAR VIK, SAM TRUAX, and HARRY STEWART along with freshmen ZACK LAVIER and JACKSON FRANK were never far behind either. After a brisk first mile, Green joined Landstrom with Vik, Lavier, and Truax next. Stewart had fallen off slightly while Frank, having gone out a bit more conservatively, was now making up ground.

By two miles Landstrom – for the first time all season - bore a striking resemblance (in both appearance and demeanor) to the athlete that earned 1^st Team All MHC and Honorable Mention All State honors a year ago, as he forged ahead, clearly intent on earning one of the coveted spots. Green was sadly fading – a disappointing day for a young man who has given a great deal of himself to our program over the past four years – while Vik and Truax were edging ahead of the rookie Lavier. Frank was desperately trying to make up ground, but it appeared that his move had come too late. With just 800m remaining Landstrom was in full flight, on his way to an effort just one second shy of his 7^th place varsity run of a year ago; certainly the finest JV time (16:12) we’ve seen in our thirteen years at CCHS.

Approaching the track Truax had a three meter cushion on classmate Vik. As he raced around the track – reminiscent of his fine finish a year earlier – Truax surged to a 20 meter lead and held on for second place in 16:25; Vik’s 16:29 was a PR by 19 seconds, fully 42 seconds better than his winning JV mark from 2011. Lavier was fourth in 16:40 – another PR while Green, Frank, and Stewart were next at 16:53, 16:59, and 17:11. This septet was just the beginning as five more Rams were next across the line: MATT HART ’15, JACOB HILLMAN ’16, CHRIS HART ’13, RILEY McCAMMON ’15, and DANIEL MARTIN ’15 made it an even dozen, four more than the Rams pulled off in 2006. All tolled, six broke 17:00 while fourteen athletes dipped under 19:00 for the 5000m course. Another ten were under 20:00 – with 28 of our 39 athletes in this race achieving lifetime best marks.

The varsity race started under cloudy – but dry – skies, and five Rams immediately made their presence known in the lead group: defending MHC champ KYLE THOMPON ’14, his freshman brother DANIEL, sophs JEAN BAPTISTE TOOLEY and SAM LOMAX, and junior DANTE DALLA GASPERINA. Kyle Thompson, recovering from illness, had strict instructions to lay off the lead through one kilo – at which point he bolted from the group and immediately opened up sixty meters on the field. Henceforth, it was simply a matter of how wide the final margin would be as Kyle showed no signs of illnesss, winning by 25 seconds over his nearest pursuer.

After Kyle broke the race open, the other four Rams battled on with one runner each from Barlow, Reynolds, and Centennial – all very talented athletes. With the team outcome certainly decided all that remained was for the Rams to sort themselves out and, hopefully, gain confidence heading to the State Meet. Lomax surged into fourth behind Hazelnus of Barlow and Hybl of Centennial while Daniel Thompson, Dalla Gasperina, and Tooley completed the top eight finishers – in that order. All five Rams had run personal best times, setting them up nicely for Eugene in ten days. A bit further back GABE KEARNS ’14 and CARL SONNENSCHEIN ’13 were comporting themselves well, finishing in 17^th and 24^th respectively. Both runners would have finished in the top 10 easily in the JV race but volunteered to run Varsity on this day to help facilitate the selection process for the varsity squad.

The dominance of the JV group was not surprising, but a comparison with the varsity race yielded some very interesting information. Had the top seven in the JV race replaced our varsity group, the Rams still would have won the meet – and it wouldn’t have been terribly close (37 points to Barlow’s 52 to Reynolds’ 61). Inserting this group into the varsity race (rather than replacing our varsity group) yields the following places: Landstrom – 6^th, Truax – 10^th, Vik – 11^th, Lavier – 15^th, Green – 17^th, Frank – 18^th, Stewart 20^th. Placing Landstrom and Truax as the varsity group’s #4 and #7 runners, our next five runners still would have finished third in the team scoring, narrowly behind a strong Barlow squad (CC ‘A’ 26, Barlow 72, CC ‘B’ 81). It was a pretty great day for the Rams.

Kyle Thompson

                                                                Metro league Championship

The THPRD course has often produced swift times and this year’s edition was no exception but, that said, Dan Oekerman of Beaverton certainly made a statement by zipping home in 15:14.  Josh Sealand led Jesuit to the team title with his 2^nd place effort of 15:42.   Lincoln’s Tanner Smith was only .31 second behind Sealand, when he earned third.  Sam Remington of the Crusaders placed 4^th in 15:49 & his team mate Brian McDavitt followed a second later.  Westview runners R J Morgan & Matthew Kingzett swept positions six & seven but Nico Banks of Lincoln added a key 8^th place effort in 15:58.  In the end it was the pack of Lincoln, which enabled it to take second & head to State with Jesuit.

      Charlotte Corless of Sunset secured the individual title with 17:52 but Ellie Kallgren, who took second in 17:55, led Jesuit to victory and the Crusaders should head to State with added confidence after their solid triumph over Sunset 35 to 48.  Erin Gregoire of Beaverton claimed an individual berth at State with her mark of 18:00, which was good for third and then Dylan Hite of Jesuit took 4^th in 18:04.    Sunset runners Nicole Griffiths (18:18) & Sarah Fahmy (18:32) grabbed 5^th & 6^th and were followed by Amanda Stowe of Aloha, who ran 18:35.   Jesuit’s solid pack then began to show its strength, as Megan Mullaney (18:37) & Taylor Moscoe secured positions 8 & 9.  Sarah Medved of Westview rounded out the top ten with her clocking of 18:40 & then Rachel Niesen of Southridge placed eleventh a second later.   Lincoln’s Tess Michaelson had an off day finishing in 13^th in 18:49 & Desyre Blackburn of Aloha came in 14^th. 

                                                                Three Rivers League

The course was revamped and supposedly toughened but the changes did little to thwart the Grant General’s marched to State in the girls’ race.  Ella Donaghu & Parkes Kendrick ran and finished together in 18:38 and Lakeridge ’s Kelly O ‘ Neill earned her fourth trip to State with her third place time of 18:56.  Piper Donaghu added a 4^th place finish in 19:06 & Shea Vallaire of Lake Oswego followed with 20:32, which was good for fifth.  Maddy Kaczmarowski contributed a 6^th place finish for the Grant cause and Zoe Clegg of Clackamas finished seventh.  

    Julian Heninger ran as expected and his mark of 16:19 gave him almost a twenty second margin over Todd Mcdonald of Lake Oswego.   Connor Cushman ran 16:50 & his team mate Roman Ollar placed 4^th a second later and then Leo Lukens of Lakeridge made it two freshmen in a row, when he finished in 16:52, which was just enough to edge Tyler Griffin of the Lions.  Al Lacey of Oregon City, Jared Bell of Clackamas & Jackson Cole of Grant rounded out the top ten.  Lakeridge won the boys’ race with 39 points and the West Linn Lions will take a young team to State after finishing with 45 points.   Lakeridge had 67 points in the girls’ race to earn second and a trip to Lane CC as well.

                                                                PIL District

With Grant & Lincoln banished to the Three Rivers & Metro Leagues respectively for 6A action the race at Lents Park allowed the remaining PIL teams to fight for berths in the 5A race.   Jackson Packham continued Franklin’s dominance in the individual race by adding his name to that of Jackson Baker, Ian Burgess & Bryce Burgess on the Franklin roster of PIL champions.   Packham ’s winning time was 15;57, which gave him a five second margin over Nabi Amin of Cleveland.  Adrian Hinkle, also from Cleveland, placed third with 16:03 & Christopher Black of Franklin took fourth with 16:06.  Cleveland runners then salted away the team victory by sauntering in at the fifth through seventh positions.  Ethan Livermore, Roba Sultessa & Christopher Hinkle all ran 16:12, ‘:13 & ‘:16 respectively.  Noah Leonard of Franklin followed in 8^th in 16:25, while Daniel Soriano of Benson (16:28) & James Markin of Wilson completed the list to top ten finishers.  There was no real surprise, when the Cleveland (23) & Franklin (44) totals showed they had qualified for State in the boys’ meet. 

     Emma Wren of Cleveland was timed in 18:52, when she crossed the finish line as the PIL champion.  Bryn McKillop added a 2^nd place finish for Cleveland with 19:13.  Third went to Margaret Lauer of Franklin in 19:39 and Emma Winn of Cleveland took 4^th with 20:05.  Isabel Leonard of Franklin ran20:12 & Ellie Forest was not far behind in sixth with 20:18.  Chloe Retallack of Franklin earned seventh with 20:22.   Cleveland annexed the girls’ team title with 21 points to top Franklin, which had 42.  Both teams will head to State but Wilson, which had the misfortune of placing third in both the girls’ and boys’ races, will end their season.

                                  NWOC District

                       Wednesday, October 24, 2012   Blue Lake Park, Gresham, OR

The NWOC meet was held at Blue Lake and Taryn Rawlings of Wilsonville and Rachel Khaw of Liberty battled late in the race before Rawlings pulled away to claim a victory in a time of 18:47.  It will be Rawlings’ third qualification for State, as the junior harrier placed 10^th in 2011 & 2^nd in 2010.   Khaw followed six seconds later but it was the Liberty runner, who could later celebrate her team’s State berth after it finished second to Sherwood 41 to 78.   Sasha Gonzalez of Milwaukie garnered third in 19:10, while Kelsey Hilsenteger of Putnam earned a trip to State by finishing fourth in 19:28.  Haley Howe led triumphant Sherwood with her fifth place time of 19:50.  Devon Greene, also from Sherwood, followed with a sixth place finish.

      Wilsonville topped the boys’ field with a low of 21 points, partially with the aid of the 1 – 2 finish of Ty James (15:56) and Ben Thomas (16:10).  Cody Thomas of Sherwood secured an individual berth with this third place effort of 16:11, as he edged Bryan Stang of St. Helens, who was credited with the same time.  Wilsonville removed any suspense in the team race, when Milo Perkins, Sam Collins, Brandon Fitzke, Kyle Shavere & Josh Meyer swept the next five places.   St. Helens managed the second team berth at Lane with 80 points and the tenth place finish of Nathan Reed made him their second runner.