Girls XC team, Taylor Steele qualify for state

The Sky-Em district cross country meet included celebrations and tears for the Sisters Outlaws.

The Outlaws girls team qualified as runners-up, and Taylor Steele won the boys individual title, but the boys team lost its bid to make the trip to state at the meet held Thursday, October 28 at Lane Community College (LCC) in Eugene.

The girls team qualified for the second year in a row and for the seventh time in the past decade, where they have placed as high as second twice. Last year's team finished eighth.

Sweet Home, in its first year in the Sky-Em League, captured the district title with 23 points to 38 for Sisters. Elmira finished a distant third (85), followed by Cottage Grove (95), Junction City (incomplete) and La Pine (incomplete).

"We knew it would be tough to overcome Sweet Home's top three, but I think we competed well against them overall," said coach Charlie Kanzig.

Zoe Falk started out with Sweet Home's top three runners including eventual winner Olivia Johnson, but lost contact midway and ran to a fourth- place finish in 21:03. Falk's teammates Katie Stewart placed fifth (21:52), followed by Hayley Palmer in eighth (22:19), Jordan Richerson in ninth (22:23) and Kirsten Clarke in 13th (23:17) to complete the scoring for Sisters.

Johnson won the race in 20:20.

Tia Berg (24:21) and Fabiola Schellworth (24:26) finished up in the top 20 to round out the Outlaws varsity team.

In the junior varsity girls race, Jordyn Clymens reeled in La Pine's Lara Reinhardt in the final 1000 meters and took the lead with just 150 meters to go to win top honors in 24:39.

The boys team experienced heartbreak at the district meet, being eked out of second place on the tie-breaking rule by the Sweet Home Huskies.

The loss shattered the team's hopes of contending for a fourth consecutive team trophy at the state championships. They have finished fourth, third, and third the past three years respectively.

"In cross country, a sport with no time-outs, no overtimes, and no Kansas Plan, ties are broken by comparing the teams' sixth-place finishers," said Kanzig. "Our sixth guy finished just one place behind Sweet Home's sixth guy and that was that."

Going into last the district meet, the Outlaws knew they would have their hands full with Cottage Grove, which came into the meet as the favorite. The Outlaws had narrowly defeated the Lions a week earlier, but with the district meet comprised of just five complete teams the matchup was tough to call. Not only that, according to Kanzig, the upstart Huskies had shown a lot of improvement during the season and could not be dismissed.

As things turned out, Cottage Grove separated themselves from Sisters and Sweet Home a bit with just 32 points, leaving the Outlaws and Huskies in a tie for second with 44 points. That tie was broken by Sweet Home's sixth runner edging Sisters' David Cowan by less than two seconds.

La Pine (124) finished fourth among teams and Elmira (125) placed fifth. Junction City did not field a team.

"Sweet Home ran with surprising intensity and earned the right to compete at state," Kanzig said.

Taylor Steele shook off early challenges from a number of runners and cruised to a 10-second victory with a 5:10 last mile to finish in 16:36.

Mason Calmettes (17:32) and Brandon Pollard (17:39) also cracked the top 10, finishing eighth and tenth respectively, while Seth Flanders (17:47) and Easton Curtis (18:00) finished 12th and 13th.

Cowan (18:31) placed 17th and Trevor Barry (18:51) 21st.

"To be honest, I am still shocked that we could have five guys in the top 13 and not qualify for state," said Kanzig. "The boys felt a profound sense of loss after their weeks of meticulous preparation."

Steele, the top returning 4A runner from the 2009 state meet, faces a stiff challenge for the individual title from no fewer than nine other runners who have established themselves as contenders.

"It should be one of the best races we've seen in years since there is no clear-cut leader and the field is deeper

than normal," said Kanzig. "Taylor will certainly be in that top group and we hope that he has the best plan and the best day."

The girls team will run at 11:15 a.m., followed by Steele at 11:50 a.m. Saturday, November 6, at LCC.