Mixx
Digg
Facebook
Delicious
Reddit
StumbleUpon
MySpace
As noted earlier the course at the Lane course was not in bad condition, although there were a few muddy areas, in the morning and the weather remained reasonable. There was a breeze to be felt on the outskirts of the course, particularly by the pond but nothing to be all that challenging. The 5A runners in the early afternoon had been lucky as well with no real inclement conditions but that would soon change for the runners in the state’s largest divisions.
The girls’ race began with the clouds seemingly more foreboding but the race began without a hitch for the usual mass start. As they made the slight turn Khalia Tidwell, who had missed most of the season but had finished third last year, led the way along with Andrea Dettman of Centennial, whose sister was State champion two years ago. With them also was Claire Devoe of Lincoln, while close behind was a huge pack with Annamarie Maag of Jesuit & Michaela Freeby of Putnam most prominent.
Dettman & Tidwell continued to lead, as they went up the hill, but at the top Devoe moved quickly to the front and opened up a sizable lead. As she raced towards the soccer field the clouds began to open up and a steady rain began to fall. Behind her trailed a large pack that included Tidwell, Dettman, defending champion Maag, Erin McLaughlin of Milwaukie, Tate Murray of Lake Oswego, Molly Hagler & Payton Schutte of Jesuit & Kelly O’ Neill of Lakeridge. Those are just the people we could make out from our pictures but there was a very large pack, who ran in the chase pack.
Soon Devoe led the pack away from the soccer field and out of sight. The rain was coming down reasonably hard at that time, as attested by the fact it can still be heard on my tape recorder. Devoe continued to lead, as she went through the mile in a time of 6:08, but by then she had been joined by the defending champion & just behind her was her team mate Payton Schutte.
The girls finally returned to view and raced along the road reaching the baseball diamond in 7:25. The leaders of the pack had all regained contact with the leader Devoe & it was a sizable group that remained in contention. As they returned by the start, Maag took a slight lead over Devoe & they headed towards the pond. Following the pair were Schutte, Murray, Emily Wheeler & Kristin Coffman of Tualatin, Erin McLaughlin, Hayley Gregoire of Beaverton & Kelly O’ Neill.
Maag continued to lead as she raced between the pond & the road but she really picked up the pace, as she made the turn at the end of the pond. She opened up a five meter lead quickly, which in short fashion was expanded to ten meters & soon fifteen. Annamarie was now going for the win & challenging anyone to stay with her. With that everyone else was left to race for second & the contenders seemingly were Schutte, Devoe & Murray. By the time she had completed the loop around the pond Maag’s lead had ballooned to a good thirty meters over Payton Schutte & Tate Murray but making a move through the pack were Emily Wheeler, who was about ten meters behind Murray, & Kristin Coffman, who trailed her team mate by five meters. Another ten meters back was a small pack that included McLaughlin, Gregoire & O’ Neill, while Jesuits’ Adrienne Demaree had moved up to tenth place.
Maag soon raced up the hill and above the track & then ran into the soccer field before doing a Pied Piper routine, that had everyone remotely follow her out of sight. By the time she had descended the hill & had come back into view at around the 16:20 mark she was all by herself. Maag made the turn before the pond & raced towards the track, while far back along the road by the start raced Schutte, Murray & Wheeler. Further back Erin McLaughlin was making a charge yet so was the freshman Kelly O’ Neill, as both were picking off runners.
Maag reached the track in 17:18 and came home in a fine time of 18:31 to claim her second title. Payton Schutte finished ten seconds later, while Emily Wheeler scored bronze. Her team mate Kristen Coffman came in two seconds after that & Kelly O’ Neill stormed home in fifth place. Erin McLaughlin, who was only 20th in last year’s race, capped a brilliant season by taking sixth. A valiant but drained Tate Murray earned 7th & it should be noted that due to tendon problems she had only been able to race once in a month & her leg was wrapped even at that. She was visibly hurting afterwards and has to be congratulated for her fighting spirit.
Audio Clip: Annamarie Maag at State 2009
Adrienne Demaree finished 8th edging Hayley Gregoire & early leader Claire Devoe hung on to place tenth. Lauren Morgan of South Medford scored in 11th just ahead of St. Mary’s Academy ‘s Erin Bergman. Sarah Overson of Westview came home 14th & Ali Cross of Tualatin rounded out the top fifteen.
The team race saw Jesuit claim its eighth successive title with a low of 36 points. Tualatin, which entered the race hoping for second, got its wish with a total of 91 points. South Eugene, led by Paige Kouba’s 21st place effort, took third with 113 points in what coach Jeff Hess had called a rebuilding year. St. Mary’s, which also had Lucy Whipps place 19th, had an off day and placed fourth.
If one was wondering about the effect of the weather, he only needed to take a look at the crowd. There had been a few thousand people at least on hand during the earlier races but it had thinned considerably during the girls’ race. The hill above the track, that once was packed with fans, had many openings by the time the girls had finished, but that would be a horde compared to what was left for the boys. The weather got worse & the “fans” left in droves. When the guys raced home there were very few on hand to cheer them finish. If there were a hundred people left on the hill it would be a surprise, yet the guys put on a show in spite of the conditions.
It was already raining pretty hard, when the gun went off to start the race. Prior to ascending the hill Jon Campbell of West Salem, Willie Milam & Jack Hagler of Jesuit, Drew Jordan & Ammon Ebert of North Medford were notably at the front of the pack. Like the girls there was a large pack that crested the hill but noticeable in the group were Ben Demaree of Jesuit, who had placed 4th last year, Ian Burgess of Franklin, Taylor West of West Linn, Musa Ahmed of Central Catholic plus defending champion Drew Jordan of North Medford. As with the girls there were just too many packed tightly together to make people out well enough to note.
Audio Clip: Drew Jordan at State XC 2009
As they headed to the area above the soccer field it was Jon Campbell, who led the way with Ian Burgess plus Bekama Jaldi of Reynolds in tow. They raced out of sight as the rain continued to pick up its own pace. Our daughter noted that “at least it’s not windy” and within five seconds a gust almost blew the umbrella out of my hand. It was not a day to lead the race early and, when the runners returned to sight, it was obvious that no one was going to disagree with that thought. Ian Burgess had a nominal lead, as he raced on the left closest to the road but he was joined by a pack of at least seventeen runners, who included Andy Bennison of Central Catholic, Demaree, West, Jordan, Jaldi, Ryan Perry of South Medford, Kevin Kavanaugh (a freshman from Beaverton), Jackson Baker of Franklin & David Huddleston of North Medford. And they were only about five meters in front of yet another fair-sized pack! At that point they were 6:20 into the race but the race was still up for grabs.
The wind & the rain continued to pick up their pace but the runners were still hedging their bets. At around the 8 minute mark they reached the far turn by the pond, where Burgess began to make a move. Drew Jordan responded to the challenge and went with him as did Matt Melancon of Sheldon & Taylor West of West Linn but by the time that they had circumnavigated the pond Central Catholic’s Curran Carlile & Andy Bennison had raised the ante and assumed the lead. Less than five meters back stretched the quintet of Burgess, Jordan, Demaree, Milam & West, while Jaldi & an unknown runner were a further fifteen meters back.
They raced up the hill near the track soon after and it was at this point that Burgess made the move to join his brother Bryce, who will race for Oregon next week in the NCAA Western Regional, as State champion. Jordan, who was content to make a move later, shadowed him as did Demaree, Bennison, Carlile plus Cullen Wannarka of West Linn, who had made a move to join the chase pack.
By the time the runners came back into focus the rain had really begun to let loose and so had defending champion Drew Jordan. He was racing towards the pond with only a half mile or so to go and he had now committed to a final surge. He opened a gap over Burgess, who made an attempt to stay with the leader but could not & a gap began to grow. Behind him by about ten meters trailed Wannarka & Demaree. The ensuing meters saw Jordan draw away to claim his second title, while behind him Ian Burgess, who like Tate Murray had missed a month of racing due to problems (Achilles), was now straining to finish. He hit the track with a good ten meter lead over Wannarka, who would prefer to race cross country on a track. Cullen’s acceleration was impressive as he caught the tired Burgess just before the far turn and then drew away to finish in 16:12: only two seconds behind the champion. Ian Burgess came home in third in 16:17 to edge Ben Demaree by a second. Taylor West placed fifth in 16:22, which was a second ahead of Curran Carlile, who was followed in turn by his team mate Peter Slauson in 7th. Ben Foubert of Barlow took 8th followed by Kevin Kavanaugh. Ryan Perry & Matt Melancon rounded out the top eleven runners. The next five runners were David Huddleston, Jackson Baker, Willie Milam & Bekama Jaldi.
As noted the weather had not been kind, yet the guys made for an entertaining race! Drew Jordan joined Annamarie Maag as a two-time champion and a number of runners had either redeeming races or gritty performances in the face of adversity. Of course with the weather, as it was at the end, everyone had faced adversity. That last thing to be determined at that point were the results of the team race, which for seemingly the last decade has been a duel for supremacy between Central Catholic & defending Jesuit. The team victory went to the Central Catholic guys, who were buoyed by the efforts of Andy Bennison in 18th & Musa Ahma in 19th, who both have had to overcome physical problems. CC had a low of 63 points and was followed by Jesuit with 88 points. West Linn had looked in trouble early in the race as Zach Boyd-Helm & Tim Donnelly seemed to be struggling, but they picked their way through the pack during the second half of the race to finish 25th & 26th to solidify a hold on third place with 99 points. North Medford finished in fourth & Reynolds took fifth.
In the end it was a day of interesting races, gritty performances and some historic achievements. There is much to take away from this meet but one has to wonder how much better it would have been, if Cole Watson & Jed Tolbert had been allowed to face Josh Elliott, Daniel Winn, Cullen Wannarka, Ian Burgess & Drew Jordan? How much more could they all have achieved, if they could have faced each other? Both Kevin Kavanaugh & Travis Neuman placed ninth in their races, which has to be historic in itself in some ways, yet with the watered-down competition the question as to where they truly stand in history, is moot. There really is next to no comparison with the past with the number of divisions in a small state swollen to six. So for those, who have asked where they stand, there can be no answer and that in itself is sad. The runners deserve better than that!
Boys 6A Individual Results
Boys 6A Team Results
Central Catholic 6 7 15 16 19 (22) (29) = 63
Jesuit 4 12 14 25 33 (34) (54) = 88
West Linn 2 5 20 21 51 (67) (91) = 99
North Medford 1 10 27 39 44 (50) (73) = 121
Reynolds 13 23 24 30 35 (46) (63) = 125
Franklin 3 11 36 38 86 (94) (96) = 174
Beaverton 8 26 31 52 68 (74) (85) = 185
Sheldon 9 43 49 56 59 (61) (90) = 216
Lakeridge 28 41 45 48 62 (69) (77) = 224
Forest Grove 18 32 55 71 75 (76) (84) = 25
Girls 6A Individual Results
Girls 6A Team Results