Contreras, The Dalles win by slim margins

The Riverhawks won the IMC district race, 36-37, largely because of the improved performances of its third through fifth runners. Contreras did his thing, winning as expected after a nip-and-tuck battle with Ridgeview senior Finn Anspach. The Dalles’ No. 2 runner, sophomore Leo Lemann, was fourth — like Contreras also near his personal-best time. The Riverhawk No. 3 through 5 placers — Blair (the boys team’s lone senior) and frosh twins Egan and Vincent Ziegenhagen — ran lifetime bests of between 23 and 30 seconds.

Contreras, who won in 15 minutes, 47 seconds, two seconds faster than Anspach, said, “All our top five did really good. Leo and I didn’t PR, but we were close to our PRs. Our third through fifth runners PRd … and that’s what won it.”

Contreras, the runner-up at the past two IMC district meets, held off Anspach over the final 800 meters of the Golf Course at Birch Creek layout. Contreras said the early pace (5:11 first mile) was slower than he expected, but he was content to pull along Anspach and Hood River’s Elliot Hawley.

“I just remember going out relaxed and slow. The first mile was pretty slow compared to other races,” Contreras said. “That was the plan. And then halfway in the race I felt good so I just kind of decided to drop Elliot and, then I was hoping to kind of drop Finn, too, but I knew it was going to be a little harder.”

When Contreras “hopes” to drop somebody, he puts on short bursts of speed to see how his competitors respond. “To do that in middle of races are like small little bursts. I try to get kind of in their head, to think, “this is really fast’.” Hawley, who finished third in 16:20, couldn’t maintain the pace, leaving a two-runner battle between Contreras and Anspach.

“I knew it was going to come up to a sprint finish and I know I could hopefully get him if it was a sprint finish,” Contreras said. “He (Anspach) is pretty good in the 800 so I was kind of scared a little bit.”

Anspach has a 1:58.0 best in the 800 meters, about six seconds faster than Contreras. But those two-lap track and field races didn’t come at the tail end of 5,000 meters. “I was just aware that he was right behind me and in my head, I was like, OK, ‘I just want it more.’ I just kind of had that mentality. He’s hurting. I’m hurting. But I want it more.”

Contreras said the team championship made his individual win that much sweeter. “It was pretty awesome, to get two team championships,” he said. “It kind of felt like déjà vu a little bit,” he added, referring to the Riverhawks’ 2019 IMC title he was a part of as a freshman.

COVID canceled the 2020 fall cross country season, but IMC runners did compete in a spring season earlier this year (no OSAA-sponsored state meet was held). Hood River Valley swept the team races for the third time in five years at the spring meet, held at Sorosis Park in The Dalles. Hood River’s boys team won three straight, from 2015 to 2017. The Dalles won the crown in 2019 and Crook County placed first in 2018.

Hood River was favored entering last week’s team competition, based on season-best times. The Eagles placed 3-6-7-9-12 compared to The Dalles’ 1-4-8-10-13 finish. The Eagles’ top runner, Hawley, has been consistent the entire season. Senior teammate Jaime Rodriguez continued his late-season improvement by posting a 24-second personal best, good enough for seventh place behind teammate William Bunch.

For The Dalles, Blair entered the meet ranked 12th in district and improved to eighth with his 28-second personal best, 17:40. Egan Ziegenhagen moved up two spots from 12th to 10th with his 23-second improvement and twin brother, Vincent, had a 30-second drop with his 13th place (from 16th).

“It’s super exciting. I think the whole team is hyped, both our girls and our boys teams did really well today,” Blair said of the Riverhawks teams which qualified for this weekend’s Class 5A state meet in Eugene. “And we have a really young varsity. … So next year well have six of our seven guys out on the team again, which is exciting.”

Of his performance, Blair said, “I kind of knew which guys I needed to pass and which people to beat (for the team) to win the race; to put our team in a good place. But we couldn’t have done it without all the other boys running good races and beating the people they needed to beat.”