Outlaws tune up for District

In the final race before this week's District Championships, the Outlaws cross-country teams showed why they are the heavy favorites to defend their Sky-Em titles and return to the state meet.

The boys and girls teams beat all but one of the 4A teams present at the Elmira Country Fair Classic, held Wednesday, October 16.

Celebrating the return to action of senior Brandon Pollard, the boys' team took sixth place overall among 29 teams from all classifications. Marshfield of Coos Bay, which just dropped down from 5A this season, clipped the Outlaws by 32 points to finish fifth behind Sheldon, Roseburg, Marist and Crater.

Dyut Fetrow and Brandon Pollard ran close to one another, finishing just two seconds apart in 16:36 and 16:38 respectively, giving Fetrow yet another personal best.

"Dyut is on fire right now," said Coach Josh Nordell. "His improvement is critical to our team's success. He is consistently placing in the top 10 percent of his races, which is fantastic."

Fetrow placed 24th among the large field of 236 runners.

Pollard, who has not raced in over a month, is one of the top returning 4A runners and looks to contend among the best again this year.

"Brandon is just itching to run the next two weeks," said Nordell.

Aria Blumm took over the reins for the week as team leader in the absence of number-one runner Zoe Falk and came through with a solid performance of 20:21 to finish 16th among 202 finishers.

Maddi Boettner posted her best outing of the year as the Outlaws' second finishers in 21:03, while Macadia Calavan (21:27), Mary Stewart (21:28) and Natalie Marshall (21:32) followed closely. Betsy Ausman rounded things out as the sixth runner in 22:52.

Philomath snuck past the Outlaws as the top 4A team in the meet as the Warriors had a pack of their own ahead of the Sisters trio to place third overall behind Crater and Sheldon. Sisters finished 60 points behind Philomath to place fifth among 24 teams.

Other runners scoring for the Outlaws included Devon Calvin (17:20), Shea Krevi (17:50), Ian Baldessari (18:04), Gabe Rice (18:26) and Caleb Johnson (18:26)

In the individual races, Pollard will take on Jakob Hiett of Sweet Home, who has the strongest record in the league so far this year, while Zoe Falk will take on long-time rival Nicole Rasmussen of Sweet Home and sophomore Breanna Wright of Cottage Grove. With eight of the top 10 times in the league belonging to Outlaws, Sisters does not expect to be threatened for the first-place trophy.

The boys teams in the league are a bit more balanced, but Sisters remains the favorite for the team title.

In looking forward to the District Meet, scheduled for Thursday, October 24 at Lane Community College in Eugene, Nordell believes the team is on the brink of some great things.

"These runners are ready to get to the big dance," he said. "Or, as we say in Minnesota, they are ready to skedaddle."

The top two teams at District will advance to the OSAA State Championships set for Saturday, November 2, also at Lane Community College.