Outlaws sweep district meet titles

Tradition and gutsy performances carried the Sisters Outlaws boys cross-country team to a thrilling one-point victory at the Sky-Em District cross-country meet on Wednesday, October 21.

The girls team won in dominating fashion, which means that both squads have a berth at the OSAA State Championships set for Saturday, October 31.

The Outlaws are no strangers to being the district champions as both teams are on four-year winning streaks, but never before has Sisters produced the boys and girls individual champions in the same year until now, making the day historic.

Sophie Borders pulled away in the second half of the girls race on her way to a convincing victory - over 20 seconds, in 20:41 - leading her team to an easy win as all seven team members placed in the top 10.

In the boys race, senior T.J. Hooks shot from the line to the lead, and no one challenged him. He ran alone for the entirety of the 5,000-meter course, finishing in 16:34, over 40 seconds ahead of the runner-up, Konrad Raum of Cottage Grove.

Hooks performed as expected, but the hope for the team to defend its title rested on the next four scorers in what everyone expected to be an epic battle with the Elmira Falcons.

"We had no room for error," said Coach Josh Nordell. "Each runner had to do his job for us to have any chance of staying close to Elmira, which everyone considered the pre-race favorite."

Things looked dicey in the first mile, as number-two runner Jordan Pollard passed by with a brow furrowed in pain from a side ache, but the sophomore pushed through it and the pain subsided in the final mile allowing him to hold on to sixth place.

Next came Izaak Kanzig, whose job was to be as close to Elmira's third and fourth runners as possible. Kanzig, who had not had a breakthrough race all season, actually found himself trailing Elmira's number two and three runners and locked his sights on them with 500 meters to go even though the leader of the two had a 70-meter lead on him at that point.

But in what may long be remembered as the Kanzig Kick, Izaak took off in hot pursuit. He picked off one Falcon with 200 meters to go and catapulted around the corner to catch the next one. With 50 meters to go Kanzig blew past to finish in seventh place (17:58).

"We didn't really envision Izaak taking out their number-two guy," said Nordell. "But we sure needed that."

All eyes then turned to senior Dyut Fetrow, who placed third at last year's District Meet and had run at State in all three of his previous seasons, but had been beset with injuries and other setbacks all season. His chore was straightforward: run conservatively at the start and move up as much as possible during the race.

Fetrow executed the plan to perfection, starting near the back of the pack at the start and picking off one runner at a time on his way all the way to 12th place (18:20). The fifth scorer for the Outlaws, sophomore Cole Pade, hoped that he would be able to run near his best for the season despite suffering a late-season onset of painful shin splints. Pade ran steadily throughout the course and actually finished in 19:04, which was good enough for 18th place and the win for the Outlaws.

"I made it through the course all right, but boy do my shins hurt now," he said after the race.

His pain was overshadowed by joy when news spread through the crowd that Sisters had managed to pull off the upset of Elmira 44-45 (low score, based on placings, wins).

Coach Nordell had tears in his eyes when he heard the news.

"We did it!" he shouted, with is voice cracking, in the team circle after the meet concluded.

Junction City placed third with 63 points. Sweet Home placed fourth (102), Cottage Grove fifth (117), and Sutherlin sixth (164).

The girls outcome was expected, as the team ran under control in preparation for the bigger test: the state meet. Sisters scored just 23 points, easily outdistancing Junction City which placed second with 54 points. Sutherlin placed third (94), followed by Sweet Home (106), Cottage Grove (125) and Elmira (129).

In addition to Borders victory, Anna Bartlett placed third (21:12), Megan Calarco fourth (21:14), Amy Hills seventh (21:55), Macadia Calavan eighth (21:55.5), Mary Stewart ninth (22:18)) and Serena Salisbury 10th (22:18.4).

"It's pretty impressive to me that the girls put all seven runners in the top 10," said Nordell. "Our strength is our depth, so if the girls can stay close to one another and run the way they have run all year they will do very well next week."

The Outlaw girls have been ranked among the top three all season in the coaches' poll and will face the biggest challenges from the Siuslaw Vikings and Molalla Indians next week, according to Nordell.

A simple goal for the boys team is to place in the upper half among the 14 teams, according to Nordell.

A total of 14 4A teams will toe the line Saturday for both the girls and the boys races and Nordell believes there is more excitement yet to come this season.

"The state meet is always unpredictable," said Nordell, "but our preparation and overall consistency give me confidence that the girls and boys will perform well."

The girls will race at 11:15 a.m., followed by the boys at 11:50 a.m. The top four teams will earn trophies. The meet includes all classifications. Ticket information and the full schedule are available at http://www.osaa.org.