Hood River Valley’s return to high school cross country competition Saturday was punctuated by junior Elliot Hawley’s near win in the Division 2 race at the sunny Nike Portland XC.
The large meet at Blue Lake Regional Park in east Portland drew more than 100 schools from numerous states and runners of varying ability levels. The Eagle girls finished seventh in the Division 2 varsity competition, which included 17 scoring schools and was won by Portland’s Lincoln High with 36 points.
Hood River Valley spent the past three weeks training, having last competed Sept. 4 at Tillamook. Junior Phoebe Wood, as she has all season, led the way for HRV on Saturday, finishing 12th overall in a personal best 20 minutes, 9 seconds over the 5,000-meter course (Lincoln’s Keira Saavedra won in 19:01). Also contributing to Hood River’s team total of 212 points were: Sophie Kaden (38th, 21:24); Alex Bronson (57th, 22:02); Mikelle Stasak (61st, 22:12); and Olivia Nickson (69th, 22:25).
Eight of the 12 competing HRV girls runners set personal bests on the flat Blue Lake, suburban course, which meanders through open meadows and tree-lined trails. Included in that eight were each of the Eagle scorers (top 5) at the Nike meet.
Hawley came within the final sprint of winning the boys Division 2 race. The gutty HRV junior settled for third place behind the 1-2 efforts of Samuel Ulrich of Siuslaw and Leo Cook of Lake Oswego. Ulrich and Cook registered the same time of 16:08.8, while Hawley was clocked at 16:10. That time is a 17-second personal best for Hawley, lowering his mark set in 2019 — his frosh season — at the Champoeg Invitational.
Hawley paced the HRV boys to 12th place among 23 scoring teams in Division 2 with 317 points (Siuslaw won with 93 points). William Bunch was the Eagles’ second runner, in 42nd place at 17:52 — also a PR.
Hood River continues its march toward defending its Intermountain Conference championship (boys and girls) later this fall with a meet Friday at McMinnville. The Flat & Fast Invitational is just that — the Joe Dancer Park course is flat and fast — and it affords runners another chance to lower their personal bests.
The Eagles will be joined in McMinnville by Gorge rival The Dalles. The Riverhawks and Eagles figure to contend once again for the Intermountain championship Oct. 27 in Pendleton. The Gorge rivals were neck and neck in the boys race at the Ultimook meet at the beginning of this month.
Of note: The fastest times at Nike Portland XC were 16:40 by Katie Peters of Lake Oswego in the girls race and 14:47 by Jamar Distel of Riverside High, north of Spokane in eastern Washington in boys competition. Cherry Creek (Denver, Colo.) and Summit of Bend, the top 2 finishing teams in the elite girls race (Danner Championship), would have finished eighth and ninth in the Division 2 boys race (based on times).
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