Saxons win boys, girls titles

October 23, 2008
The light blue and red uniforms just kept coming.

Timothy j. gonzalez | Statesman Journal
South Salem High School's boys and girls cross country teams won team championships at Wednesday's Central Valley Conference district meet at Bush's Pasture Park.

If that weren't enough, South Salem teammates Courtney Hochstetler and Cody Hughes won the girls and boys races.

"It's the commitment," said South Salem co-head coach LisAnn Saxe, in her 18th year at the school. "The girls came in with a lot of experience. They came in with a lot of running with community groups, etc. Our girls side is pretty experienced and focused from the very begging.

"The guys are also very talented. For them, though, it didn't come as naturally. They made a conscious decision a couple years ago that they were going to do this their senior year."

With the cross country titles, South Salem has won five CVC championships in the past six days — the football team Friday, the girls soccer team Saturday and the boys soccer team Tuesday.

For the girls team, it was their third consecutive district championship.

This year, however, the team of Hochstetler, Evelynn Moz, Emily Meltzer, Kellen Friedrich, Marilyn Brooks, Lila Hawkinson and Crystal Ignatowski, has no seniors.

"We wanted this really bad and to come back with another district title would be really good," said Hochstetler, a sophomore. "I really hope we do it next year, too."

In the girls race, Hochstetler took with the lead pack, which included McNary senior Kayla Perry, Sprague senior Erica Nelson, West Salem sophomore Grace Lin and McKay sophomore Steffani White.

Around the 2-mile mark, Hochstetler started to pull away with the lead in front of Perry in an attempt to build a substantial lead before the uphill climb in the final mile of the course.

"(Hochstetler) was my competition coming in and I knew around mile 2, 21/2 that she was going to try to shake me, so I was going to try to stay with her. But at the end she just picked it up and I couldn't stay with her," Perry said.

Hochstetler's tactic worked, as she had a significant lead after the hill and kept it to the finish.

Hochstetler won the 5,000-meter race in 19:59, with Perry in second in 20:12.

"I was a little scared because I don't have as good of a kick as I know (Perry) does," said Hochstetler, who attends Western Mennonite High School. "I was a little worried, but I told myself I'm going to stick with her and I'm just going to pace myself and stay relaxed."

Lin came from fifth to pass Sprague teammates Erica Nelson and Hannah Cohen in the final 1/2-mile to place third in 20:24.

"I heard my team, all the parents, everyone," said Lin, who also placed second in the CVC in tennis as a freshman. "We've been practicing finishes in practice so I felt I could do it so I did."

Nelson, a senior, finished the race in fourth at 20:28, with Cohen, a junior, in fifth in 20:44.

South Salem won the girls team championship with 41 points, eight fewer than second place West Salem's 49.

"We're pretty excited about that," South Salem co-head coach Rob Wood said. "All sorts of different things happened. You can't always count on everything coming out the ways you wanted.

"There's no guarantee what's going to happen so there's no guarantee we're going to have all of those girls again even though none of them are seniors. It's nice to have that kind of potential to start with. It sure makes it a whole lot easier."

The top two teams and four individuals from non-qualifying teams qualify for the Class 6A state cross country meet, Nov. 1 at Eugene's Lane Community College.

West Salem's team, which includes Emily Meltzer, Bree Whitehead, Amy Lin, Karen Wynkoop, Rachel Elmer and Miranda Glover beat Sprague, which scored 66 points for second place to make it to the state meet.

Qualifying for the state meet as individuals in the girls are Perry, Nelson, Cohen and McKay's Sarah Jabin, who placed sixth in 20:44.

The boys race was close for the first mile, but Hughes left no doubt in his win.

At the 1-mile marker, a lead group of Hughes, McKay senior Devin White, West Salem junior J.J. Campbell, McKay senior Thomas Goodwin and Redmond senior Paden Snell formed.

Shortly after that, though, Hughes broke from the rest, with White in second not far back.

"I wasn't really trying to get out quick," Hughes said. "I was trying to get out on my pace. We had a lot more guys than I thought would be around at the mile. I thought it would just be me and Devin and guys would be in a bigger pack behind us. Everyone was there.

"I took off and then just tried to break everyone down the second mile. I kind of did break them by surging. I could tell that Devin White was trying to catch back up and get back up with me to make it a race."

Hughes made it look easy as he led the rest of the race to cover the 5,000-meter distance in 16:17, with White second in 16:32.

"He ran a perfect race," said White, who is making his third trip to the state meet. "I can't blame it on anything but myself."

Hughes will make his third consecutive state meet appearance, but for the first time, he will bring the rest of his team with him.

"He was so focused. He looked like he had a really contented look on his face," Saxe said. "He was working hard, but he looked like he knew exactly what he was doing, that he made a decision.

"It was just incredible to witness because he's been the driving force behind that boys team. Cody has wanted this for himself since freshman year. They were at the bottom of the league two years ago."

North Salem senior Carey Miller went from running in the second pack to finish third in 16:34. Redmond senior Paden Snell finished fourth in 16:45 and South Salem junior Marshall Beranek rounded out the top five in 16:45.

South Salem's boys team of Hughes, Beranek, Matt Miner, Kyle Reed, John Bain, Brandon Weems and Hal Gordon won the meet with 42 points.

"That felt really good," Hughes said. "I really wanted to take the district championship myself and put it back in the school."

West Salem's team of Campbell, Jordan Hoffman, Trent Dudley, David Clark, Seth Bybee, Ben Whitenack and Kelby Evans finished second with 61 points, with North Salem placing third with 95 points.

Qualifying for the state meet individually are White, Miler, Snell and Sprague junior Josue Rodriguez, who placed sixth in 16:46.