Hood River Valley’s girls cross country team served notice to the rest of the Northwest Oregon Conference last week, when the Eagles won a preview meet Sept. 3 at Blue Lake Park in east Portland.
HRV was led by the 2-5-6 finish of Olivia Nickson, Phoebe Wood and Syl Perrin, scoring 33 team points to the 44 and 46, respectively, of La Salle and Wilsonville. Nickson, a senior, ran a lifetime best of 19 minutes, 52 seconds, despite having to survive a bump-and-run with a moving vehicle entering the park during the race. Nickson’s pop-up and pop-off maneuver off the car interrupted her cadence but enabled her to remain on her feet and continue the race. Wood, last year’s Intermountain Conference champion as a junior, was timed in 20:58, and Perrin, a frosh, was five second behind her senior teammate.
Putnam’s Noemi Lundgren negotiated the 5,000-meter course with no mishaps and easily won the girls competition in 19:05. Lundgren finished first in the NWOC district meet in 2021 and ninth in the Class 5A state meet. Lundgren had a busy week, capped by a 10th-place finish at the Ash Creek Cross Country Festival on Saturday in Monmouth.
Wilsonville won the boys race with 39 points while Hood River edged Canby for second, 62 to 65. HRV was led by senior Elliot Hawley who was fourth in 16:01. William Bunch was second for the Eagles in seventh in 16:53 and frosh teammate Sebastian Clarkson was 12th (17:29).
The boys race was highlighted by the photo finish of Milwaukie’s Logan Law and Wilsonville’s Carter Cutting, who were both timed in 15:07.7.
Hood River runners will train through this week and return to racing Sept. 21 at a five-way meet at Lents Park in Portland.
Of note: Northwest Oregon Conference teams, Wilsonville, Hood River, and Canby are ranked 1-2-4 among Class 5A boys team based on early-season times. Crater figures to be in the mix by season’s end, to defend its 2021 state championship. Wilsonville was fourth at state a year ago and HRV fifth.
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