Hood River Valley High School senior Daisy Dolan holds her prize, a garden gnome, from Saturday’s cross country opening race at Wilsonville. Dolan took first in the Senior race as the Eagle runners started their new season, with their eyes on defending their Columbia River Conference championship in 2015. Third-year coach Brandon Bertram said, “Daisy ran a fantastic race against a deep field of seniors. She sat in the front group and of four girls and made a strong move with 100 yards left in the race to win it by 3 seconds.” At Wilsonville, races are class by class, so seniors run only against seniors, junior against juniors, etc. Jesse Wiley was top senior boy in 10th place. Bertram said, “This was our best opening performance at Wilsonville since I have been coaching Hood River. Out of the 32 runners who competed, it was the first high school race for 18 of them. We had six top 10 medalists.” The freshman girls won their division race led by Francis Dickinson in sixth, Celia Acosta eighth, and Reed Bauer 10th. Among sophomore girls, Josie Petersen took 10th. “There were impressive performances against some of the stronger teams in the state. Our captains did an exceptional job leading a young group of runners,” Bertram said. “Our young runners handled themselves in a composed and confident matter. It was a great way to start the season.” See the Sept. 3 edition for a cross country season preview.
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