Outlaws run fast in Philomath meet

In a race billed as having the finest field of teams outside the state meet, the Sisters cross country teams showed their competitiveness as the girls won and the boys finished fifth at the Paul Mariman Timbertown Invitational held at Philomath Saturday, October 5.

The girls gave credence to their number one ranking among 3A teams, winning convincingly over six other Top 10 squads behind personal best times from Lindsay Chick, Resa Hodson, Anna Morton and Rikki Glick.

Sisters scored 52 points to win, followed by Wilsonville and Elmira, both with 104 points. Wilsonville won the tie breaker as its sixth runner beat Elmira's sixth. Philomath finished fourth with 107, and Cascade fifth with 124 among 11 complete teams.

Chick (20:4.6) edged Hodson (20:04.9) at the finish line for fifth place after the pair had run together for most of the race. Chick's time was over 30 seconds faster than her previous best.

"Lindsay gave our team an incredible lift with her performance," said coach Charlie Kanzig. "The girls really worked together through the course."

Anna Morton shaved two seconds off of her best time, finishing ninth in 20:28.3.

Iris Powell placed fifteenth (20:51.6) and Rikki Glick twenty-fourth (21:19.4), which was a personal record by one second, to complete the scoring for Sisters. Melissa Little (22:10.5) and Amy Cretsinger (22:26.1) finished 42nd and 44th respectively among 90 finishers.

"Melissa and Amy consistently finish ahead of most other team's fifth runners, which really helps separate our score from other teams," said Kanzig.

In the boys' race, Alex Templar moved up throughout the race to run a personal best of 17:05, which was good enough for 17th place, to lead the team to a fifth place finish among 15 teams. Capital Conference rival Molalla won the meet with 87 points, followed by Wilsonville (98), Siuslaw (105), Philomath (112) and Sisters (155).

Jordan Beck finished 21st (17:16.5), Wes Hodson 32nd (17:36.4), Koby McCorkle 38th (17:48.7) and Devon Pelkey 52nd (18:16.8) to round out the scoring for the Outlaws.

"Overall, the boys ran solidly, but not exceptionally," said Kanzig. "Alex, Wes and Devon all ran their best times, and Jordan and Koby were within range of theirs, so we're still improving."

The sixth and seventh runners for Sisters, David King (18:39.2) and Justin Thomas (18:42.3) finished 68th and 70th respectively among 104 finishers.

The Outlaws are scheduled for two meets in Central Oregon this week.