Runners have big day

Lindsay Chick. Photo by Sue Beck

The Capital Conference District Championship cross country meet on Friday, October 25, turned out to be a banner day for the Sisters Outlaws.

The boys and girls teams qualified for the state meet and the junior varsity teams captured top honors.

The varsity girls' team, ranked first the entire season and favored going into the meet, defended its district title with an all-time meet record score of 25 points.

Lindsay Chick and Resa Hodson led the way, finishing second and third behind Cascade's Meagan Kuntz. Chick edged Hodson 19:59.1 to 19:59.8. Kuntz sped to an early lead and maintained it throughout to win in 19:35.

Iris Powell (20:37), Anna Morton (20:52) and Rikki Glick (20:53) finished sixth, eighth, and ninth, to complete the scoring for Sisters, while Amy Cretsinger (21:34) and Melissa Little 21:51) were close behind in 15th and 16th places respectively.

"Believe it or not, the girls were actually a little off their best as a team," said coach Charlie Kanzig. "Anna is coming back from an injury and Iris battled a side ache, but they still came through with impressive performances."

Alex Templar placed sixth and cracked the 17-minute barrier for the first time (16:56) to pace his teammates to a stellar showing that not only qualified the boys' team for the state meet, but came within seven points of Molalla, which was ranked second in the latest 3A coaches' poll.

Molalla won with 42 points to Sisters' 49. Stayton finished third with 58.

Koby McCorkle uncorked the best effort of his career, finishing ninth in 17:09. Jordan Beck (17:19) and Wes Hodson (17:24) ended up 10th and 11th, while Devon Pelkey blazed to a 47-second best to finish 13th in 17:29.

"Koby ran extremely well and Devon's performance was almost unbelievable," said Kanzig. "Jordan has been performing solidly all year and I know meeting this goal meant a lot to him and the rest of team."

The Outlaws' sixth and seventh runners helped the cause as well as both Nathan Church (17:56) and David King (17:56.2) beat Stayton's fifth runner.

Terran Swehosky of Stayton won the meet in 16:41.