EUGENE — A pair of senior standouts finished their in-state high school careers in style Saturday.
Lincoln’s Ellery Lincoln set a new course record on the state champion course at Lane Community College and Brynn Davenport was state champion for Crater and led the Comets to the 5A title at the OSAA/OnPoint Community Credit Union state cross country championships.
“This is exactly what I wanted to do today,” said Lincoln, the University of Oregon-bound standout for Lincoln. “This is a perfect ending to my Oregon high school career.”
Lincoln led all the way, pulling away from South Eugene’s Evangeline Johnson Hess early and using a strong closing sprint to achieve her biggest goal — being the first Oregon girl to run under 17 minutes on the state course.
“I really wanted to dip under 17,” said Lincoln, adding that when she saw the clock as she rounded the corner on the track, she saw it was in reach.
Lincoln crossed the finish line in 16 minutes and 57 seconds. Her last kilometer was the fastest of the five, a blazing 3:17.
“I like to close strong,” she said. “I feel really good about that.”
Lincoln and most of the other top runners still have one or two big races to go, starting with the NikeCross Regionals in Spokane, Wash., in two weeks.
Lincoln said she is excited about the regional meet.
“I’m in the best shape of my life,” she said, adding that she hopes to run well and qualify for the national meet in Portland.
But Saturday’s state meet was the final regular in-state race.
Johnson Hess was second (17:36), followed by Grace Keene of Mountainside (18:16), Eleanor Wyatt of West Linn (18:16) and Elizabeth Welsh of Jesuit (18:21).
As an added bonus for Lincoln, the Cardinals took home a trophy, too, finishing third behind champion Jesuit and South Eugene.
That was somewhat of a surprise after Lincoln was just third in the Portland Interscholastic League championships.
“I’m so proud of the way the girls approached the race,” Lincoln said. “We came here as an at-large team and we are going home with a trophy.
“I love my team so much. I am so grateful to be here with them.”
Jesuit scored 45 points while South Eugene had 71, Lincoln 119 and Ida B. Wells 132.
“I feel so good about how we ran,” Jesuit’s Welsh said. “We’re really learned how to race well as a team.”
Anya Augustine was ninth (18:40), Quinn Hanley 10th (18:56), Alana Barker 14th and Maeve O’Scannlain 16th for the Crusaders, who finished second behind the Cardinals at the state meet last year and want to redeem themselves with not just the state title, but a strong performance at regionals.
“Regionals is our big goal,” said Welsh, a senior. “We wanted to win state, but we really want to place well at regionals.”
5A
A short while before Ellery Lincoln had her race, Davenport just missed in her goal of breaking the old record of 17:05 by Crescent Valley’s Emily Wisniewski.
But Davenport and her stellar Crater squad did win the title, even without two of their top five runners, as they look ahead to their own shot at regionals.
Davenport easily won in 17:16 and the Comets had five of the top 10 finishers.
Mari Dunlap was fourth (18:23), Grace Havniear sixth (18:43), Emma Wigelsworth ninth (18:57) and Alma Galicia 10th (19:01) as Crater scored 27 points, far ahead of runner-up Summit (99), Bend (106) and Ashland (136). Crater’s sixth and seventh runners also finished high, with Haddie Barsalou 18th and Ava Ontiveros 21st.
“This group is phenomenal,” Davenport said. “To leave as a senior is hard. I’ve watched this team grow with culture and fitness. We are so close — something you don’t find on every other team. The culture is what makes it so special.”
Crater ran without two of its better runners.
Adley Damon, who has the team’s best time from its win at the prestigious Clovis Invitational in California, opted not to run as she recovers from a cold, instead choosing to focus on healing up for the regional meet. And Gwen Vanwart, who ranks third on the squad, is recovering from an injury, hoping to be ready for the regional meet.
The Comets still had plenty to easily win the state meet.
“We are such a deep team,” Davenport said.
Crater coach Justin Loftus agreed.
“Two other girls got the call to step up,” he said. “Five in the top 10 is amazing.
“It’s a great group.”
As for the individual race, Davenport reversed last year’s result, when she finished second behind Caldera’s Maddie Carney.
“Last year, I had a very different race plan,” Davenport said, describing it as “conservative.”
“This year, since I’m a senior, I wanted to show up and put it all out there. I felt really good to go out there and crush it and have confidence in myself and trust my fitness and be in my own zone.”
The result was Davenport leading all the way.
Carney overcame Crescent Valley’s Alexa Carney late in the race to finish second in 18:07. Montgomery was third (18:15) and Redmond’s Abigail Davis fifth (18:36).
4A
Scappoose freshman Katherine Kessi — Kate to her friends outside of running — ran away from the field, building a lead early and winning in 18:14. Molly Schoolmeester of Banks was second (18:30), followed by Olivia Hernandez of Philomath (18:38), Lydia Sherman of Banks (18:45) and Cassidy Smart of Philomath (18:52).
Lindsey Brown finished sixth for La Grande (18:56) with teammate Evelyun Segrn seventh (19:01), leading the Tigers to the team title.
Kessi didn’t have a lot of time to celebrate her individual win. She and teammates Natalie Howard (14th Saturday) and McKenzie Heimbuck (57th) also are on Scappoose’s second-ranked soccer team and needed to get home for an afternoon quarterfinal playoff match against North Bend (The Indians won 4-1 to reach the semifinals).
Kessi said she tried to taper her training during the week and not condition as hard in soccer. She did not, however, try to save anything for the soccer match even though she had a commanding lead.
“I tried to push the whole time,” she said. “I put this first.”
Kessi and her soccer teammates went home with a trophy.
La Grande won with 51 points, followed by Philomath (80), Banks (92) and Scappoose (101).
Kessi is a right forward for the Indians while Howard is a center mid and Heimbuck a defender.
“I’m excited for our soccer team,” Kessi said, adding that soccer and cross country work well together. “It helps take the pressure off running,” she said. “It makes me feel much less stressed.”
La Grande, meanwhile, repeated as team champion (the Tigers also won the boys title for the second straight year).
“We wanted it so bad,” Brown said. “Last year we got it and we wanted to do it again.
“Our team quote is Let go and let God. Let God carry us through. We wanted it for each other. I am so happy we were able to do it.”
Frances Edelen was 13th, Rose Edelen 17th, Adele Olson 22nd and Isabelle Schmidt 23rd for La Grande.
3A
Coquille’s Ella Henthorn repeated as state champion, setting a course record for the new 3A division, which was separated out from 2A-1A for the first time this year. Henthorn’s time of 17:43 was the fastest ever by a girl from any division under 5A.
Corbett freshman Claire Horton was second with her own impressive time (18:00), followed by three runners who led Oregon Episcopal to the team title.
Henthorn ran with the lead the entire race.
“I’m just really happy with that time,” she said. “The time that I got was great. I was planning on going out, running my own race, not getting in my head.”
Henthorn came in with confidence from her third-place finish at the Rose City Classic in Portland, where she was edged out at the line by South Eugene’s Johnson Hess, both finishing in 17:01.
“My goal for the season was 17:30,” Henthorn said. “I’m thankful to God for letting me blow that out of the water and I’m thankful to God for (me) not getting sick this year.”
Last year she was slowed by mononucleosis during the season but recovered in time to take the state title.
Like the girls from the bigger schools, this year she is looking ahead to the regional meet.
“This season I got a lot more competition than I have in the past,” she said. “I found out I really do belong next to the girls from the big schools. This season has been a confidence boost for me.”
Oregon Episcopal had three of the top five and won the team title. Abby Wilson was third (18:24), Kate Vasanth fourth (18:30) and Andy Bryant fifth (18:45) for Oregon Episcopal. Bea Dames (17th) was the fourth scorer for OES, which would have easily won the title if five runners were counted. Elly Azerrad (21st) rounded out the top five for OES and Carys Hunter 23rd, ahead of almost every other team’s third runner.
The combined Enterprise-Joseph-Wallowa was second (60), Glide third (64) and Corbett fourth (78)
“I’m so proud of the team,” Vasanth said. “I think we’ve gotten a lot better in our motivation for racing. We are doing it for each other. We are confident and we are doing it for each other.”
While Wilson and Vasanth are seniors, Bryant and three of the other four Aardvarks who raced Saturday will be back, providing hope for another title next fall.
“A lot of it is the motivation to want it,” Bryant said.
2A/1A
The first champion of the day was Bandon sophomore Jael Legutki, who followed her 3,000-meter title on the track last spring by winning her first cross country crown in the new division.
Legutki ran with several others for the first half of the race before pulling away after the second time the runners crested the biggest hill on the course.
She finished in 18:57, comfortably ahead of runner-up Evelyn Hodgson of Weston-McEwen, who finished in 19:08. Trout Lake’s Melody Stock was third (19:19), followed by Piper Braseth of Imbler (19:21) and Jolee Woody of Riddle, who runs for the combined Days Creek-Riddle squad (19:45).
“I’m excited. I wouldn’t say I expected that,” Legutki said. “I knew there were a lot of girls who were going to go out fast. That was a good front pack.”
She said the top of the hill felt like the right time to make her move. She quickly separated.
“I kind of looked at the shadows,” she said. “I knew they were getting further behind.”
The combined Union-Cove team took the title in the new format that includes just four runners for team scores with 40 points, followed by Lakeview (46), Bandon (54) and Heppner-Ione (69). The Bobcats won despite not having an individual in the top 10. Gia Savage led the squad, finishing 12th.
“It feels really good,” Savage said. “I knew we had a good shot coming in. It depended on what we did in the race. Everyone did really well.”
The squad is about evenly split between students at Union and students at Cove. Savage is one of the Cove students and said the partnership works well.
“It’s nice,” she said. “We can support each other.”
Kallin Culver was 14th for the Bobcats, Brynn Weishaar was 19th and Gabby Savage was 32nd.
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