Outlaws racing toward district

The Outlaws cross country teams came ready to race at the Paul Mariman Invitational held Saturday at Philomath High School in a meet that featured nearly all of the contenders for the state 4A team title. The result of the high quality of competition was the fastest times of the season for most of the Sisters runners.

Zoe Falk smashed her own personal best to place 11th in 20:19, a full minute better than her previous top mark.

"We needed one of our lead girls to have a break-out race and Zoe had it," said Coach Charlie Kanzig. Falk's time was the best in over two years for the Outlaws, according to Kanzig. "Every one of the runners who beat her, other than a pair of fellow freshmen, ran at the state meet last year."

Defending state champion, Raelyn Robinson of Siuslaw, mowed down the field in 18:54.

The rest of the varsity team, Katie Stewart (21:54), Hayley Palmer (22:22), Kirsten Clarke (23:06), Fabiola Schellworth (23:54) and Tia Berg (24:24) placed seventh among the 14 teams.

"Overall, I am happy with how the girls competed, especially considering that the teams that beat us are six of the seven top-ranked teams in the coaches poll and we were without one of our top runners, Jordan Richerson," he said. "We aim to close the gap between us and the rest of those teams by the state meet."

Siuslaw, which has won four of the last five state team titles, won the meet, followed by Hidden Valley, Scappoose, Sweet Home, Cascade, and Philomath, to round out the top six.

Taylor Steele struggled a bit in placing fourth in an equally high-quality field of runners on the boys side. His time of 16:36 was well off what he hoped to do at the meet, according to

Kanzig.

"This was Taylor's first shot at running head-to-head with the top runners from Siuslaw, La Salle, and Philomath, which are the top three 4A teams in Oregon, and he appeared to be not as prepared overall as he had hoped," said Kanzig. "I reminded him that it is the state meet that really matters next month, but I know he was still disappointed to not stay with the leaders."

Freshman Mitchell Butler of Siuslaw, the fastest ninth grader at the 4A level since the wonder days of four-time state champion Billy Harper in the 1990s, won the race in 15:54. Josh Seekatz of Philomath finished second (16:09) and Sean O'Holleran of La Salle, was next in 16:29.

Seth Flanders (17:39), Mason Calmettes (17:41) and Brandon Pollard (17:56) all ran personal bests to help the Outlaws' cause, helping the team to a strong sixth-place finish despite the absence of Easton Curtis.

David Cowan (18:54), Jared Schneider (19:22) and Erik Lund (19:29) missed out on personal records, but expect to re-group before the team's next race Wednesday, October 20 at the Elmira Invitational held at the Oregon Country Fair site in Veneta.

La Salle captured the team crown, followed by Philomath, Siuslaw, Cottage Grove, North Valley and Sisters.

"I'll take a sixth place against those teams right now," said Kanzig. "Certainly we hope to move past some of them by the first Saturday of November."