Eagles soar at district cross country meet; sweep boys, girls championships

Cross country scoring includes a team’s first five finishers, but its No. 6 and 7 runners can add points to opponents’ scores if they finish before the first through fifth runners on those teams. The Dalles had a better 1-2-3 punch with Juan Diego Contreras (second), Nick Caracciolo (fifth) and Leo Lemann (sixth), but HRV’s top seven finished ahead of the Riverhawks’ fourth and fifth runners.

Hood River Valley’s Chloe Bullock and Crook County’s Alec Carne won the individual titles as expected. Neither senior runner lost a race this shortened season, which included mostly weekly dual or three-way meets among league opponents. Bullock was fifth in the 2019 district meet, also at Sorosis, while Carne won the boys race that season.

Bullock broke out from the start and pulled The Dalles senior Hannah Ziegenhagen along for a short while before building a commanding lead. “It’s not always easy when you are far and away the best athlete out there,” Hood River Coach Brandon Bertram said of Bullock. The HRV senior won the 5,000-meter race in 20 minutes, 25 seconds; Ziegenhagen ran mostly alone in second, finishing in 21:47.

Carne broke free 600 meters into the race up the first hill on the challenging Sorosis course. Contreras shadowed Carne, but the Crook County senior seemed in command midrace through the finish. Carne won in 16:40, seven seconds ahead of the sophomore Contreras – the same order as the 2019 final. Hood River’s Elliot Hawley was third in 17:07 and Finn Anspach of Ridgeview was third in 17:33.

Underclassmen dominated the boys top finishers, as Carne and Caracciolo were the lone seniors in the top 10. Caracciolo’s high school cross country career showed steady progression at district, starting with a 14th place in 2018, to 10th in 2019, to fifth.

The tough Sorosis layout kept season and personal bests to a minimum, but there were some notable exceptions. “The course is tough,” Bertram said. “If you’re not having a good day it will chew you up and spit you out. … Sorosis doesn’t fool anybody. It just comes down to straight fitness.”

HRV’s Jackson Bullock trailed fellow freshman Lemann of The Dalles in seventh place with a personal best 18:23. The Eagles’ fifth runner, Joshua Humann, the team’s lone varsity race senior, was 12th with a seven-second season best (19:16) and sophomore John Beckman cut 16 seconds off his season best finishing in 19:39 for 16th overall.

Bertram said there was a feeling of redemption for the HRV runners who competed in the 2019 district meet, where The Dalles won the title over Crook County and the Eagles. He said that fueled some of the workouts – served as a reminder not to cut corners and to “take care of the little things.”

On the girls side, HRV sophomore Phoebe Wood, cut 25 seconds off her personal best with her third-place finish in 22 minutes. Teammate Sophie Kaden was seventh in 22:40, a seven-second personal best. Mieka McKnight (6th) and Lucy Hennessy (12th) were the other runners who accounted for the Eagle team score.

The Dalles senior Emily Johnson just missed her personal best by two seconds, finishing eighth in 22:42 and teammate Catie Wring lowered her best by five seconds, finishing 11th in 23:06

HRV has won five successive district girls team championships, with The Dalles finishing second the past three races. The Riverhawks were the last league team to defeat HRV at districts, and that came in 2015.

“A couple of them had off days, but it just turned on their teammates,” Bertram said of HRV’s balance this season. “Our depth in our program is our strength.”

Crook County was expected to give The Dalles a run for second place in the girls race, but Riverhawks’ No. 4 and 5 runners, Lucy Booth and Giselle Ortega were 19th and 20th; Ortega’s time of 25:18 was a 13-second personal best. Pendleton finished third and Crook County was fourth.