PREP ROUNDUP: Comets run away with King crowns

Sep. 29—If you're going to host a cross-country event named for the best distance runner to come out of Central Point, it's probably good to have a solid hometown showing.

But what the Crater Comets did Wednesday in the boys and girls 5,000-meter races was something well beyond that.

The Crater boys made it look almost like a team practice at the eighth annual Max King Invitational, sweeping the top four spots, and the Comet girls weren't far off that pace with the top three finishers as each won team titles going away at the Jackson County Expo.

Event namesake Max King, a 1998 Crater High graduate who owns several national titles in distance running, was on hand to enjoy the festivities and see a Crater boys team with most of its weapons available for the first time this fall.

Senior standout Tyrone Gorze cruised to victory in the boys race in a time of 14 minutes, 43.54 seconds in his first Oregon showing of the season.

Gorze enjoyed a busy last year, finishing 12th in the men's 5,000-meter run at the World Athletics U20 Championships in Cali, Colombia. He previously had won the 5K at the USATF Under-20 Outdoor Championships — an event that also saw him place second in the 3,000.

"He looked great," Crater head coach Justin Loftus said of Gorze. "He looked smooth. He's super strong right now, he didn't lose his speed after Worlds. We went through a little bit of a down week or two but he didn't want to wait and get back into it."

Gorze's next race likely will be the Crater Twilight on Oct. 13, where Loftus said the elite runner may take a crack at trying to get under 14 minutes.

The defending Class 5A state champion in cross-country was fluid in making his way around the Central Point course, where he was trailed in order of finish by teammates Caleb Doddington (15:57.16), Shaun Garnica (15:57.28) and Tayvon Kitchen (15:57.32).

Crater's Nos. 2 and 3 runners behind Gorze, Josiah Tostenson and Jeffrey Hellmann, did not compete Wednesday.

"We're pretty deep this year," said Loftus, "so other guys just stepped up. It was just an impressive showing by our top four across the board."

With Ryder Hvall (ninth, 17:01.90) and Caleb Barsalou (11th, 17:17.56), the Comets posted six of the top 11 marks to display their overall depth as the team preps for a repeat of their 5A crown earned a year ago.

Crater scored an impressive 18 points to easily claim the boys title, with South Medford a distance second at 83 and Hidden Valley third at 111. Grants Pass (114) and North Medford (138) rounded out the top five teams.

Devon Scott placed 10th to pace the Panthers in 17:07.04, while North Medford's Logan Huffman was 12th (17:19.30) and Elijah Zavala finished 14th (17:21.94).

Lindsay Siebert was similarly as dominant as Gorze in winning the girls race, closing in 18:31.03 to finish a full minute ahead of teammates Emma West (19:36.18) and Samantha Payne (19:39.30).

"Lindsay's a threat, honestly," Loftus said of the junior's state championship potential. "I would put her up against anyone in the state. And the rest of the girls just crushed it under 19:40."

St. Mary's received another good showing from Saniyah Ayala, who placed fifth overall at 19:55.81 behind the Crater trio and Nettle Grey of Grants Pass (19:45.36).

North Medford's Eleanor Nichol, Reese Meager and Marisela Villa packed together to take spot Nos. 6-8, with Nichol crossing in 20:08.20 followed by Meager (20:13.66) and Villa (20:14.29).

Kyla Potratz placed 11th for Phoenix in 20:43.66, while Ashland's Stella Mason led her team by placing 17th in 21:40.81.

All told between 28 middle school and 25 high schools competing, Loftus said there were about 1,060 runners in action on Wednesday.

"It was a really good showing," he said. "It's nice to have representation of our whole area like we had today. Our kids did well, but it's nice to have all the teams out there and competing and raising the bar for the whole area. That's what makes it fun."

Boys

TEAM SCORES: Crater 18, South Medford 83, Hidden Valley 111, Grants Pass 114, North Medford 138, Klamath Union 162, Ashland 181, Henley 218, Mazama 291, Eagle Point 303, Illinois Valley 327, Phoenix 329, South Umpqua 357, Brookings-Harbor 393.

INDIVIDUAL RESULTS (Top 20): 1, Tyrone Gorze, Cra, 14:43.53; 2, Caleb Doddington, Cra, 15:57.15; 3, Shaun Garnica, Cra, 15:57.28; 4, Tayvon Kitchen, Cra, 15:57.32; 5, Grant Bohannon, HV, 16:24.43; 6, Gianni Altman, GB, 16:26.67; 7, Carter Harmon, KU, 16:57.08; 8, Matt Rieman, GP, 16:57.32; 9, Ryder Hvall, Cra, 17:01.90; 10, Devon Scott, SM, 17:07.04.

11, Caleb Barsalou, Cra, 17:17.56; 12, Logan Huffman, NM, 17:19.30; 13, Jaia Hannagan, GP, 17:20.18; 14, Eljiah Zavala, NM, 17:21.94; 15, Ivar Hokanson, Cra, 17:23.02; 16, Kyle Staten, HV, 17:31.36; 17, Eli Dixon, SM, 17:34.54; 18, Sam Iverson, Hen, 17:37.82; 19, Aiden Huggins, Cra, 17:42.61; 20, Rowan Nichols, SM, 17:44.06.

Girls

TEAM SCORES: Crater 28, North Medford 53, Grants Pass 56, Klamath Union 120, Phoenix 147, Henley 169, Hidden Valley 184, Cascade Christian 208, South Medford 212.

INDIVIDUAL RESULTS (Top 20): 1, Lindsay Siebert, Cra, 18:31.03; 2, Emma West, Cra, 19:36.18; 3, Samantha Payne, Cra, 19:39.30; 4, Nettle Grey, GP, 19:45.36; 5, Saniyah Ayala, StM, 19:55.81; 6, Eleanor Nichol, NM, 20:08.20; 7, Reese Meager, NM, 20:13.66; 8, Marisela Villa, NM, 20:14.29; 9, Bela Marshak, GP, 20:24.01; 10, Haylee Baldwin, Cra, 20:37.81.

11, Kyla Potratz, Pho, 20:43.66; 12, Isabela Coffman, KU, 20:56.35; 13, Ellie Berg, GP, 21:02.56; 14, Kara Loftus, Cra, 21:25.87; 15, Taylor Weber, GP, 21:29.08; 16, Joey Clark, HV, 21:32.59; 17, Stella Mason, Ash, 21:40.81; 18, Maritza Villa, NM, 21:47.79; 19, Mackenzie Schmidt, Ash, 21:53.26; 20, Annika Wells, Ash, 21:53.67.

Boys Soccer

ST. MARY'S 5, NORTH VALLEY 2: At Merlin, St. Mary's junior Chris Kranenburg scored three goals to help the Crusaders remain unbeaten in Class 3A/2A/1A District 5 play.

Timofii Sybirtsev got the scoring going for St. Mary's (6-1, 6-0 Dist. 5) after a deflected cross settled in front of goal and he was able to knock it in. Kranenburg followed with his first goal off an assist by Jose Mondesi, who tallied his own goal next off a pass from Leandro Cronk.

Kranenburg's goal off an assist by Declan Read allowed St. Mary's to take a 4-1 lead over North Valley (3-4, 3-3) into the second half. The Knights closed the gap with their second goal before Kranenburg finished the scoring with 10 minutes to go on a scramble after getting a pass from Cronk.

Volleyball

ROGUE VALLEY ADVENTIST 3, LOST RIVER 0: At Merrill, Rogue Valley Adventist won its fourth straight match and remained unbeaten in Mountain Valley League play by fending off a spirited late showing by Lost River, 25-7, 25-21, 28-26.

Isabell Zamora had 10 kills and seven digs and Destinee Quattrocelli added 22 assists and four aces for the Class 1A fourth-ranked Red Tail Hawks (12-1, 7-0 MVL).

Emma Bischoff contributed 19 kills and six digs and Michaela Porter had five kills, two aces and four digs to deny Lost River (4-9, 3-4).