The Dalles runners win girls district title

Senior Alaina Casady and junior Abigail Pope finished fourth and sixth to lead Coach Jill Bell’s The Dalles team, which placed all seven of its varsity runners in the top 18 of the six-team field. The Dalles’ girls team has qualified for state seven successive seasons.

The district’s top two teams (Crook County was awarded second by virtue of its sixth runner’s finish) automatically qualified for the Class 4A state meet Nov. 9 at Lane Community College in Eugene. The Tri-Valley’s Molalla earned the state’s one 5A wild card berth based on its performance at district — and throughout the season.

A wet McIver layout kept the district times slow overall, unlike last season when eight of the top nine girls finishers recorded either season or personal bests over the notoriously fast course. Pope was one exception this season, as the junior ran a lifetime best of 20 minutes, 22 seconds in sixth place. Casady, the 2023 individual champion, ran 19:42. Kestley Hodges and Laura Black were 11th and 12th for The Dalles (21:13 and 21:18). Two other The Dalles’ runners ran lifetime bests: No. 5 runner Ember Kahler was 15th in 22:01; and Josie Brace was 18th in 22:33. Teammate Marley Perry finished as No. 6 runner for the Riverhawks in 16th place at 22:16. The Dalles is ranked third in Class 4A based on best times this season. The Riverhawks trail Philomath and Klamath Union in the rankings. Casady, Pope, Hodges and Black have state finals experience, having competed at Lane in 2023 on The Dalles’ fourth-place, trophy-winning team.

The Dalles boys second at districts

Crook County bunched its second through fifth runners within 21 seconds of each other to beat The Dalles at the 2024 Tri-Valley Conference district cross country championship Oct. 30 on a drizzly day at McIver State Park.

The two teams, and third-place Molalla, qualified for the Class 4A state meet Nov. 9 at Lane Community College in Eugene. Crook County scored 40 points at district, The Dalles was second with 50, and Molalla third with 55. Those three schools finished in the same order in 2023, as well.

The Dalles’ top three runners — Tyson Long, Caleb Caldwell and Trey Hodges — placed well, but the gap between them and the Riverhawks’ other two scoring runners was too big. Crook County countered with its fifth runner placing in the top 13 spots (1-7-9-10-13).

Long, Caldwell and eventual winner Adam Radabaugh of Crook County had a five-second gap on their closest pursuers two-thirds into the race. Radabaugh would pull away over the final 600 meters to win the 5,000-meter jaunt in 16 minutes, 34 seconds. Long was second in a personal best 16:34, and Caldwell was fourth in 16:40. Hodges ran a lifetime best of 16:56 to finish sixth.

Noah Preston (17th, 17:39) and Aiden Erickson (21st, 17:44) completed the team score for The Dalles. Teammates Zeb Stelzer and Luke Sorenson were 22nd and 23rd, in 17:45 and 17:46.

The Dalles has qualified for state six successive seasons. The Riverhawks were third in 2023, first in 2022, and sixth (Class 5A) in 2021. Four runners on Coach Jill Bell’s team — Long, Caldwell, Preston and Erickson — also competed at the state meet in 2023.