What I like to call our pre-season is now over and the real competition begins next Saturday at the Lake Woahink Invitational in Florence.  From now until the end of the season all of our meets will be against many of the top 4A teams in the state.  And we are among them.  In the latest state poll released today our girls’ team is ranked #5 and our boys are ranked #7.

Saturday’s meet at Oregon City was difficult in many ways.  It was HOT.  The entire course was out in the open sun and it was tiresome as the runners repeated an exact loop three times.  Nevertheless, in a meet featuring four 6A teams, six 5A teams and three 4A teams including Philomath, the Warriors stood tall.  Our girls finished a close 3^rd; just 21 points behind host Oregon City (6A school) and eleven points behind David Douglas, the largest school in the state with over 3000 students! 

Once again Meaghan Alba led the way, placing 6^th in 20:26.  That is the 9^th fastest 5k by all 4A girls in the state this season.  Tegan Weaver ran her usual come-from-behind performance and finished 11^th in 21:34, the 17^th fastest time in the state this year for all 4A runners.  Kendra Sheeder had another strong performance, placing 20^th in 22:17.  Quinn Damitio was our 4^th runner.  She took 25^th in 22:42.  And Jenna Grunwald, running in her first race of the season, ran a respectable 23:04 to place 34^th.  The 5k distance was Jenna’s 2^nd longest run since track season, so she will likely drop her time significantly as the season progresses and her endurance grows. Kindra Coleman endured some serious back pain during the race but fought her way to the finish line placing 58^th in 25:07.  Kirsten Bovbjerg and Wren Isaacs represented in the JV girls 5k placing 34^th and 42^nd out of 94 competitors.  Kirsten ran 27:06 and Wren clocked 27:34.

Our boys were 6^th out of the 14 teams but could have easily finished 4^th had Andrew Damitio been well.  Andrew did finish the race but was well behind his usual performance, placing 34^th in 19:00.  Mitchell Thomas led the way, placing 6^th overall with a time very near 17:00.  Tim McIlroy continued to show his big improvement by placing 12^th in 17:43.  Clay Youker and Clark Hellesto completed the varsity scoring by placing 42^nd and 44^th in 19:19 and 19:20. 

Our JV boys were led by Karl Hellesto who placed 13^th in 19:50.  Marcus Weaver took 25^th in 20:28.  Freshman Jensen Davis had a wonderful 5k debut by placing 45^th in 20:58.  Our other JV finishers were James Golston in 21:07; Xayd Magana in 21:57; Keith Larson in 21:58 and Jeremy Sieperda in 23:46.

It should be much cooler this Saturday in Florence when twenty teams collide in one of the best cross-country meets of the year.  We hope you all will join us and cheer on our courageous PHS runners.