THE DALLES runners (pictured from front to back), Paige McLeod and Molly Nelson take off from their starting posts in a 5A cross country race this season at Sorosis Park in The Dalles. Saturday at the George Fox XC Classic Meet in Gervais, the Riverhawks secured third place status, one point from second place overall, for one of their best outcomes of the 2015 regular season.
THE DALLES runners (pictured from front to back), Paige McLeod and Molly Nelson take off from their starting posts in a 5A cross country race this season at Sorosis Park in The Dalles. Saturday at the George Fox XC Classic Meet in Gervais, the Riverhawks secured third place status, one point from second place overall, for one of their best outcomes of the 2015 regular season.
Running in the Silver Division with 198 other participants, The Dalles girls’ Cross Country team secured third place with 167 points and the quartet of Emily Morin, Caela Dunagan, Molly Nelson and Avery Cardosi had top-50 finishes at the George Fox XC Classic Meet at Willamette Mission State Park, Saturday in Gervais.
“Our girls finished in third place (Silver Division) at the George Fox XC Invitational,” said TD head coach Bob Thouvenel said. “Emily Morin finished in the top-20 with a 13th-place finish. Our girls had an excellent race, one point out of second place. There were over 30 teams in the race.”
Morin finished the 5,000-meter race in 13th place with a time of 20 minutes and 35.3 seconds, and Dunagan, another senior, strutted her stuff with a 21:07.5 for 27th place in the standings and Nelson added 40th in the individual standings with a solid 21:26.1.
Cardosi (21:38.7), Paige McLeod (21:51.5) and Marissa Heemsah (24:00.3) rounded the standout Riverhawks runners.
South Medford wound up taking top honors on the day with 71 points, and Ashland came in second place with 166 points, one point ahead of The Dalles (167).
McKay (195) Glencoe (216) and Molalla (22), Redmond (237), Klamath Union (260), Sherwood (272) and North Salem (286) capped the top-10 in the standings.
On the boys’ side, Jony Nelson had everything working his way, as he posted 22nd place out of 241 runners with a final mark of 17:16.3.
Zerin Croover added a time of 17:57.8 to claim 66th place, Johnny Miller, a junior, placed 72nd overall and added a time of 18:01.8, and Chase Snodgrass came in at 108th place in 18:35.9.
Sophomore Michael Lantz had a mark of 18:44.0 for 117th place, and junior Ethan Shubert hustled home in 18:52.7 for the Hawks’ sixth-best varsity participant, and Robert Westhafer added a 19:08.1.
“The boys did a good job considering that we were missing two varsity runners,” Thouvenel said of the short-handed boys.
TD’s junior varsity group had 14 runners signed up for action, as Tyrell Evans led with a time of 18:12.6.
Rey Aviluz (19:09.5), Bill Burns (19:43.1), Cory Cameron (20:24.4), David Wring (21:31.2), Blake Keinlen (21:39.6), Josiah Anderson (22:00.8), Joe Linebarger (22:02.8), Chris Montecalvo (22:06.9), Quinn Strassheim (22:13.4), Caleb Wild (23:30.9), Leon Linebarger (23:33.7), Killian Strassheim (23:46.3) and junior mark Felderman rounded out the JV field with a time of 23:58.2.
“We ran at this meet two years ago, so we still have a few kids that ran here as freshmen or sophomores,” Thouvenel said. “About six of those runners ran faster this time. Overall, a good meet for us.”
Just as the varsity girls showed, TD’s JV group placed 15th overall and had four runner end up with times less than 27 minutes.
Maria Keilman, a sophomore, led TD with a final time of 24:32.4 and right behind her was senior Whitney Scott, who had a 25:57.5.
Leslie Blakely (26:03.4), Katie Burns (26:26.0), Gabrielle Jennings (33:04.2) finished the best runners.
“We had five personal bests – three of them coming from our JV girls, which is exciting,” Thouvenel said. “ Also, we had three seasonal bests.”
The Dalles has another big running challenge this week with the Kyle Burnside Wildhorse Invitational starting at 4 p.m. in Pendleton this Thursday.
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