Advertisement

Cross-country: Over 1,000 runners gather for Three-Course meet

gary henley, the daily astorian, ore.
·4 min read

Sep. 28—It was "cross-country Saturday" across the state, with several big meets to mark the midway point of the fall season.

Locally, 61 high school teams, 21 middle schools and some 1,250 runners gathered at Camp Rilea for the return of the "normal" Three-Course Challenge meet, hosted by Seaside High School.

The meet was canceled in 2020, and last year it was a "mini" Three-Course Challenge, featuring just local teams.

On Saturday, schools from across Washington state and Oregon were back for this year's meet, with runners from Astoria, Seaside, Warrenton, Jewell and Ilwaco taking part.

"We had 1,220 finishers, not counting the open race," said Neil Branson, the meet's co-director, along with Kerri Boutin. "So add 30 to the total."

Branson, who spent many years as the Seaside cross-country coach, has seen every Three-Course Challenge meet, which was in its 31st year.

"Beautiful weather," Branson said. "The good people of Camp Rilea stepped up big time to help in a wide variety of ways, and our school workers from girls soccer, ASB (Seaside's Associated Student Body), cheer, choir, girls basketball and football did amazing work. It was a community affair."

And some of the local runners did have some success.

Astoria junior (and former Gull) James Roehr was fourth out of 254 finishers on the boys' Moderate course, finishing behind runners from Eastlake, Columbia River and Shorecrest, all Washington schools.

Roehr covered the 5,000 meters in 18 minutes, 35 seconds.

On the boys' Easy course, Astoria senior Tommy Laman was 17th out of 200 finishers, followed closely by teammate Samuel Suits (24th); and Astoria's John Clement was 33rd out of 226 runners over the Difficult course.

On the girls' side, Seaside freshman Maddie Menke was 16th among 156 runners on the Moderate course, while Astoria sophomore Elizabeth Joli was 32nd. Astoria senior Ella Zilli placed 41st on the Difficult course out of 131 finishers.

Seaside senior Reese Clark was 33rd among 139 runners on the Easy course.

At the middle school level, Ilwaco seventh grader Elsa Linquist was second out of 97 runners, running the 3,000 meters in 14:13.

Knappa runs in Nike XC meet

The Knappa boys cross-country team passed on the Three-Course Challenge, and — with the Logger boys preparing to make a strong run at the state championship — took part in the Nike Portland XC Challenge, held Saturday at Blue Lake Regional Park.

In the 5,000-meter, Division 1 varsity race, the Knappa boys scored 566 points to finish 26th out of 32 schools in the team scoring, with most of the teams from large Oregon and Washington state high schools.

Knappa's Isaiah Rodriguez is right on pace for an individual state championship in November, as the Logger senior finished 11th out of 218 runners, covering the 5,000-meter course in 16 minutes, 15.3 seconds. He was less than a minute behind the winner, sophomore Owen Powell, of Mercer Island, Washington.

Knappa sophomore Joshua Peterson was 57th (17:08.2), followed by Wyatt Jacobson (166th), Soren Brown (174th), Clay Keyser (181st), Finn Peitsch (185th) and Donnie VanGundy (201st).

Knappa junior Corbin Roe was 86th in the junior varsity (juniors/seniors) race, followed by teammates Finn Corcoran (103rd), Moses Peitsch (111th) and Ethan Smalley (123rd).

Loggers dominate the Elk Run

On Tuesday, local cross-country athletes were back in running form for the popular "Elk Run," hosted by Knappa and held at Teevin Ranch near Jewell.

Warming up for their run at the Class 2A state title, the Knappa boys easily scored the team victory in Tuesday's Elk Run.

Logger senior Isaiah Rodriguez finished over 30 seconds ahead of the second-place runner, covering the 5,000-meter course in 17 minutes, 17 seconds.

Knappa sophomore Joshua Peterson followed Rodriguez, taking second in 17:47.4, and Logger freshman Wyatt Jacobson placed third (18:27.2).

Astoria runners John Clement (18:35.4), Tommy Laman (18:44.7) and James Roehr (19:02.2) were fourth, fifth and sixth, and the Loggers rounded out their top five with junior Corbin Roe (seventh, 19:17.9) and freshman Finn Peitsch (eighth, 19:24.2).

Runners from Rainier and Warrenton also took part. Warrenton's top finisher was sophomore Edgar Guillen (15th).

Vernonia junior Delaney Draeger won the girls' race, crossing the line in 21:16.6. Warrenton sophomore Payten Buckelew was a distant second (22:27.7), followed by Knappa freshman Mylie Lempea (22:33.5) and Astoria's Ella Zilli (24:51.1) and Elizabeth Joli (25:13.1). Warrenton freshman Emma Stevens was sixth.