Outlaws cruise in race

The picturesque setting of Silver Falls State Park was the scene of outstanding performances by the Outlaws cross country team on Thursday, September 25.

Both the girls and boys teams cruised to easy victories.

The junior varsity girls set the tone for the day as Outlaws took the first six places in the race, lead by Hillary Stroup's win in 13:43.

The varsity girls team, missing its top two runners, wasn't quite as dominant, but still put five girls in the top fourteen to easily outpace the rest of the seven-team field with 37 points. Kirsten Clarke took over as the leader for the team, finishing third in 21:28, followed about a minute later by a cluster of three Outlaws. Hayley Palmer (22:46), Claire Kanzig (22:47) and Jordan Richerson (22:53) finished seventh, eighth and ninth respectively.

Completing the scoring for the team was Nicolle Meadors, who continued her steady improvement in her first year of running with a 14th-place finish in 23:40. Courtney Johnson, continuing her rebound from a year-long injury, placed 23rd in 24:01.

"It was tough to be missing Nathalie Tresseras and Emi Conrads," said Kanzig, "but the other girls really stepped in and ran well."

The boys team placed six runners in the top 13, squashing the rest of the teams with just 32 points. Parker Bennett ran the best time of his career to take runner-up honors in 16:50, 13 seconds behind Estacada's Brad Prettyman. Benton Urquhart placed third (17:02), Mike Calavan fifth (17:22), Seth Schneider 10th (17:45) and Taylor Steele 12th (17:46) to complete the scoring for the Outlaws.

Drew Harrison placed 13th (18:00) and Craig Prine (18:56) 26th to round out the team.

"I'm anxious to see the full boys team in a 5,000-meter race, since we were missing Jared Henderson this week, but even so, I think the boys ran superbly overall," said Kanzig.

Kanzig will get his wish at Philomath's Paul Mariman Invitational on Saturday, October 4, which features all of the top 4A teams in Oregon.