Pollard's win highlights home meet

With a bright blue sky overhead and the Three Sisters mountains on the horizon, runners from seven teams toed the line at the Outlaws' Folk Festival XC Meet on Friday, September 9. The meet was highlighted by a win from Sisters runner Brandon Pollard and a strong showing from the Outlaws girls team.

Bend High's large team rounded out a field of competing smaller schools including Yamhill-Carlton, Sweet Home, Crook County, La Pine, Trinity Lutheran and, of course, Sisters.

As would be expected, 5A Bend dominated the team race with 25 points, but the Outlaw girls produced a good showing to place a respectable second place with 51.

"The girls showed up as a real team, which was great to see early in the season," said Josh Nordell, head coach of the Outlaws. "They pushed one another, running in pairs and threes, which is what we like to see."

Sophie Borders and Anna Bartlett ran near one another throughout the 5,000-meter course and finished in sixth (21:55) and seventh (22:03) places respectively.

Sophomores Molly Winter (23:28) and Tate Ricker (23:40) came through next in 11th and 12th places, and Zidane Galant-LaPorte completed the scoring in 15th place with a time of 24:04, a hair in front of Engracia Diez who finished in 24:05.

Crook County finished third (77), followed by Yamhill Carlton (86), La Pine (130), and Trinity Lutheran (incomplete).

Grace Perkins of Bend was the individual winner with an outstanding time of 19:16.

Jordan Pollard is now two-for-two in races this season, as he was never challenged in the boys race. He took top honors with a time of 17:39, 21 seconds ahead of the runner-up.

Fellow junior Cole Pade ran what Nordell considered his best race ever on his way to seventh place in 18:36. Freshman Josh Liddell, in his first high school race, placed 16th in 19:16, Peyton Myhre (20:28) came through as the fourth scorer in 29th place, and Jack Berg wrapped up the scoring in 35th place with a time of 21:42.

"Our boys team will just get better and better as we train through September," said Nordell.

Bend High won the meet with 39 points, followed by Yamhill-Carlton (47), Crook County (84), Sisters (88), Sweet Home (106), La Pine (144) and Trinity Lutheran (incomplete).

The coach felt quite pleased with both teams' efforts, especially considering the squad was out at 6 a.m. setting up over 2,000 chairs for the Sisters Folk Festival.

"They had every reason to be a little tired from the long day, but they came out ready to run," he said.

The Outlaws travel to the Seaside Three Course Challenge this weekend at Camp Rilea, which attracts over 2,000 runners from through Oregon and Washington.