Junior Adele Beckstead and sophomore Ana Candanoza finished 1-2 and Philomath placed five runners among the top 10 to post a girls cross-country team victory Saturday at the CG Bramble Scramble in Cottage Grove.
Philomath edged the host school for second place in the boys’ race with two Warriors finishing in the top 10, four in the top 20.
The results had a familiar ring with the girls winning a variety of trophies this season while the boys continue to move up the competitive ladder as a young crew gains more experience.
Beckstead, Candanoza and Junction City junior Libby Fox were the three individual girls to keep an eye on for top honors in the girls’ race. Two-thirds of the course took runners on a trail system near the school, included stretches around grass fields and finished on the track.
Beckstead won for the third straight year with a time of 20:23.9 — her best in the event. Candanoza’s second-place performance came in 20:42.5, which was about 53 seconds faster than her 2022 time, and bettered Fox’s finish by a little less than 10 seconds.
Sophomore Lucy King placed seventh in 21:21.33, junior Melea Lattin was right behind in eighth in 21:26.07 and sophomore Hallie Morrison finished 10th in 21:37.75.
Junior Hanna McDaniel was 18th (22:22.90) and junior Kateri Pindell finished 20th (22:36.20) as all seven PHS varsity girls finished among the top 20. There were 62 runners in the race.
Overall, the Warrior girls finished with just 28 points to win by a considerable margin over runner-up Cottage Grove.
In the boys’ race, there were no surprises at the top with Cottage Grove junior Carter Bengtson notching another victory on his home course in 16:26.93. And in the team standings, powerful Newport rolled with 28 points to Philomath’s 70. Cottage Grove was a close third with 79.
Individually for the Warriors, sophomore Leo Pausch placed sixth in 18:13.15 — 56 seconds faster than he ran at the Bramble Scramble last year. Sophomore Lukas Hernandez had a ninth-place finish in 18:43.10 with a similar rate of improvement of 52 seconds.
Junior JJ Lewis was 16th in 19:27.29 and sophomore Mason Stevens clocked a time of 19:39.40 for 20th. Freshman Galen Murch was 32nd (20:17.54) and freshman Jacob Hernandez finished 38th (20:38.74) to round out the varsity lineup.
In the JV races, the PHS girls entered the only full team and had the top four individuals — Kyah Weeber, Alexa Eckhold, Brooke McDaniel and Phoebe Coen. For the boys, Oakley Pausch was the top PHS finisher in fifth.
The Warriors will next head to the Harrisburg Gatorade Challenge on Thursday. The varsity races are scheduled for 5 p.m (girls) and 5:30 p.m. (boys).
