EUGENE — The Summit boys cross country team is one of the country’s best. On Saturday, the team’s leader put up an all-time effort in the OSAA/OnPoint Community Credit Union state championships at Lane Community College.
Pushed to a torrid pace by defending champion Garrett Faught of Crater, Summit’s Bjorn Blankenship smashed the course record with a time of 14 minutes and 19 seconds (a 19-second improvement on the old mark by Crater’s Tyrone Gorze) to win the 5A title.
The Storm, ranked second in the country by Dyestat, cruised to the team title with five of the first nine runners, but that was secondary to the individual race.
“It’s insane,” Blankenship said of the winning time, which was three seconds better than Faught, a junior who also easily beat the course record. “I knew I was fit enough to do it. To actually piece it together and do it on this difficult a course, it’s something.”
He could blame Faught for the fast time.
Faught wanted to set such a hard pace nobody could keep up.
“I tried to break his soul and I didn’t,” Faught said. “I broke everyone else.”
“He almost broke me,” Blankenship admitted. “Garrett has guts. I knew if I let him get away, he would be gone. I had to crater to what he wanted to do.”
Blankenship pulled away from Faught before the track and sprinted to keep in front, spurred on by the roaring crowd near the finish.
“I found it in myself to keep going,” he said. “There are few times it has hurt like that.”
Faught, who won last year in 14:57, came away from the race happy, too.
“I raced hard,” he said. “I put it all out there. I enjoyed it. That was a fantastic race.”
North Eugene’s Ashenafi McKinnis was the only other runner who even tried to keep up, and he ran well, too, finishing third in 14:51.
Summit’s Landon Kjorstad was fourth (15:05), Crater’s Ryder White fifth (15:08), Summit’s Charlie English sixth (15:08), Crater’s Sawyer Hutton seventh (15:16), Summit’s Clayton Jero eighth (15:19) and Summit’s Hudson Boaz ninth (15:35).
Summit finished with 28 points to 53 for Crater, 92 for Bend and 114 for Wilsonville.
Summit’s Kai Blankenship was 15th and Irving Stoller 21st as the Storm tuned up for the upcoming regional meet in Spokane.
Bjorn Blankenship was not surprised by his team’s strong showing.
“I expected nothing less,” he said. “We all do our workouts as one. I see these guys training next to me. They are experienced and strong enough to do it in the race.”
Summit coach Kari Strang agreed.
“This team is remarkable,” she said. “It’s so wonderful to be a part of.”
On Saturday, Bjorn Blankenship was the most remarkable.
“I’m blown away,” he said. “I’m so excited for the rest of the season. I’m looking forward to toeing the line for regionals and hopefully nationals.”
The record is special, he said,
“It’s a blessing,” Blankenship said. “This course has so much prestige. So many fast runners have come through and crossed that (finish line). I’m so glad I am included (in that discussion).”
He also hopes he doesn’t keep the record.
“I want Oregon boys to look at that time and beat it, hopefully soon,” he said. “Maybe Garrett next year.”
6A
The one runner who might have challenged Blankenship’s time Saturday had to settle for being a repeat champion.
South Eugene’s Yosuke Shibata almost didn’t make it to the starting line, but finished his senior year with a second title. He was hit with a bad case of the flu on Sunday and was still stuck in bed on Tuesday.
“I started losing hope for state,” he said. “My coach urged me to keep up hope.”
By Friday, he realized he could run, but also that reaching his big goal of a course record was not realistic.
“I wanted to go for the course record,” he said. “The sickness urged me to be on the cautious side.”
He settled for holding off McMinnville’s Isaiah Carpenter for his second straight title.
“It was a great effort,” Shibata said.
The South Eugene senior finished in 14:53, 8 seconds faster than his winning time last fall, while Carpenter crossed the line in 14:57. Felix Snyder of Franklin was third (15:05), followed by West Linn’s Leo Brown (15:08) and Faysal Ibrahim of David Douglas (15:13).
Lincoln, meanwhile, captured its first boys title since 1955. Malcolm Dimoff was sixth (15:14), Jack Denton seventh (15:15) and Peter James eighth (15:19) as the three seniors led the Cardinals to the title.
Seth Kugel was 13th and Henry Tachouet 19th for Lincoln, which scored 46 points, to 94 for Franklin, 157 for South Eugene and 162 for Sherwood.
The Cardinals have been building toward the title since Dimoff, Denton and James were freshmen and finished second to Jesuit last year.
“It’s such an honor to be here,” Dimoff said, adding that missing the state meet their freshmen year provided both motivation and appreciation for how special the event is.
“It’s so special to me to be able to do my favorite thing in the world with my favorite people in the world,” he said.
4A
Repeat champion was the theme as Marist Catholic’s Corbin Sage and the La Grande squad won for the second year in a row.
As an added bonus, Sage also set a new 4A course record with his winning time of 15:18. That was 4 seconds faster than the old mark set by former Marshfield standout Alexander Garcia-Silver in 2022.
“Getting Alex’s record was something I had on my mind,” Sage said. “I knew I had it in me.”
He ran a very different race from last year, when he and Jaxson Stovall, another Marshfield runner, were together most of the way until Sage won a sprint on the track.
“This time, it was a little more take it out from the gun,” Sage said.
He became the third straight runner from the Sky-Em League, with Garcia-Silver and Cottage Grove’s Carter Bengtson, to win in back-to-back years.
“It’s really cool; 4A has had some really good runners come through,” he said.
Sage was followed by Cooper Altenburg of La Grande (15:39), Diego Velazquez of Tillamook (15:52), Kaden May of La Grande (16:11) and Nick Wood of Molalla (16:15).
La Grande won the team title with 72 points, 101 for Molalla, 128 for Valley Catholic and 138 for Klamath Union.
Altenburg was already looking ahead to next year. The Tigers return all their runners.
“We still have another year with this team,” Altenburg said. “I’m excited for what’s coming next year. We have to train extra hard to get that three-peat — keep grinding and don’t let any of the winning go to our head.”
May, Huntyn Azure (34th place Saturday) and Noah Hawkes (47th) all are juniors. Altenburg, Tyler Perry (19th) and Vance Koyle (32nd) are sophomores.
They knew they were favorites Saturday, but also to expect a challenge from the other teams.
“We wanted to come in and race our best and run for God and his glory,” Altenburg said.
3A
Siuslaw’s Henry Stone fought through a painful hip injury to take the individual title and lead the Vikings to another state championship.
Stone won a sprint with Gus Kirby of Neah-Kah-Nie to win the race in 15:33. Kirby finished in 15:36 and Santiam Christian’s Tytus Janssen, who ran with them most of the way, faded to third in 15:44. Neah-Kah-Nie’s Dylan Sigman (16:02) and Siuslaw’s Bentley Nelson (16:11) rounded out the top five.
“That’s the best I’ve felt in a race,” said Stone, who recently suffered a pinched nerve. “Glory to God. I’ve never felt that good. I was praying the whole time, singing ‘Jesus Loves Me.’”
Stone had a strong finish on the track to beat the two rivals.
“I’ve raced Gus and Titus three times this year and Gus has always pulled it out,” Stone said.
Stone also won the District 3 title and Siuslaw’s home invitational, but said he has rarely won races.
It helped that he was running for his teammates.
“We’re best friends,” he said. “We knew what we had to do.”
Stone, Nelson, Ezra King, who was 11th, and Yair Brito Xilot (20th) all are juniors who have been friends since kindergarten.
All the Vikings are underclassmen. Sophomore Greyson Doyle (19th), sophomore Henry Dotson (22nd) and freshman Hudson Lane (24th) all finished ahead of the fourth runner for Neah-Kah-Nie, helping the Vikings to the team title.
Siuslaw finished with 52 points. Neah-Kah-Nie, which had three of the top seven, scored 63. Nyssa (101) and Enterprise-Joseph-Wallowa (151) took the other two trophies.
“We talked about how every place was going to matter,” Siuslaw coach Chris Johnson said of the Vikings’ mentality going into the race.
“Hats off to Neah-Kah-Nie,” Johnson said. “They’re tough. They got a lot better. They pushed us to the limit.”
Counting the Covid-19 year, when OSAA didn’t sponsor championships but the 4A classification ran its own event, it’s the fifth time since 2020 and ninth time overall Siuslaw has been boys team champion.
Stone said Johnson helped motivate the Vikings after a loss to Neah-Kah-Nie earlier in the season.
“We weren’t putting in our quality work that we could,” Stone said.
The Vikings made that extra attention to detail pay off Saturday.
2A/1A
After finishing second to a Knappa runner last year, Beckett Pahls made sure he was on top this year.
The Bandon junior pulled away from Knappa’s Rowdy Justus in the final half mile to win.
Pahls finished in 15:52 while Justice crossed the line in 15:59. Knappa’s Kyler Rodriguez was third (16:22) as the Loggers won the team title.
Stuart McLaughlin of Regis finished fourth (16:29) and Ian Garlitz was fifth for Union-Cove (16:32). The Bobcats finished second in the team race behind Knappa, which won for the second straight year.
Last year, Knappa’s Wyatt Jacobson edged Pahls in a sprint to the finish. The Bandon runner said that was on his mind during the race Saturday.
“It definitely influenced how I raced,” said Pahls, who moved in front before the track and didn’t let Justus close the gap. “I know these boys. They’re good buddies of mine. They are quick on the track.”
Pahls said he was running more for place than time, and was happy with how things came out.
“It was a long season of work,” Pahls said. “I’m thankful to God I stayed determined and stayed on track with my training.”
Knappa finished with 32 points to 70 for Union-Cove, 113 for Bandon and 140 for Regis.
Knappa’s Paul Thompson was ninth, Trey Lempea 11th and Logan Affolter 14th.
“We did amazing,” Justus said. “This is maybe the best team we’ve had so far.”
And even though he finished second to Pahls, Justus said the race was great, too, especially when he and Pahls pulled away from the field.
“That was so much fun,” he said. “I had a blast.”
dorklefin2003@yahoo.com
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