Cross country: Eagles come fourth, fifth at Champoeg

Hood River’s girls, led by senior Phoebe Wood, scored 108 points. Wood and fellow senior Olivia Nickson finished 11th and 13th for the Eagles; Wood’s time of 20 minutes, seven seconds for 5,000 meters was a season’s best by more than 30 seconds. Nickson finished in 20:23. Also among the Eagle scorers (top five) were: frosh Syl Perrin (21st, 21:11); sophomore Alex Bronson (37th, 22:21); and junior Cristine Kinoshita (38th, 22:30).

Hood River senior Elliot Hawley was seventh in the boys race in a season best 15 minutes, 59 seconds over the traditionally fast Champoeg layout. Senior William Bunch was 14th in 16:31, a 16-second personal best. Other scoring individuals for the Eagles were: sophomore Logan King (27th, 17:19); sophomore Kai Wagner (36th, PR 17:45); and freshman Sebastian Clarkson (57th, 18:31). Sophomore Davis Kerr was 58th in 18:32.

Class 6A schools Central Catholic and Ida B. Wells finished 1-2 in the girls and boys races.

Central Catholic senior Wesley Shipley won the boys race in 15:25; Ella McGillis was first (18:41) in the girls race for the Rams. There were 15 scoring teams in the boys race and 13 in the girls.

Of note: Hood River’s boys team is ranked fourth in Class 5A, based on best times for 5,000 meters this season. Crater finally entered its runners in enough meets at that distance to place the Comets No. 1. Summit of Bend is second and Hood River’s Northwest Oregon Conference opponent, Wilsonville, is third. The Wildcats and HRV figure to be the leading contender for the boys team title at the Oct. 26 district meet.

The same could be said about the girls side, as HRV is ranked first in the conference - with Wilsonville second - and fourth in Class 5A. Looming Putnam recently had a fifth runner join the team, which enables the Kingsmen to register a team score for the first time last week. Although Putnam is ranked fourth presently, it has the best team score through four runners.