One of three seniors on the varsity, Hallie Morrison put in considerable work over the summer in preparation for this season. And when teammate Ana Candanoza had to give up running for the rest of the fall after an injury, Morrison was suddenly thrust into the No. 2 position.
“My goal is to break 20 before high school’s up so I’ve got a few more races to try to do that,” Morrison said after placing fifth at Saturday’s Paul Mariman Invitational. “I’ve been trying really hard to get that.”
Gallery: PHS girls cross-country at Paul Mariman Invitational (Oct. 12, 2024)
A collection of photos from the Philomath High girls cross-country team’s appearance in the Paul Mariman Invitational on Saturday.
Morrison finished on the home course in 20:44.1 but nobody had blazing times with mulch not packed down on significant stretches of trail. Morrison’s personal record is the 20:04.1 that she ran back on Sept. 11 at the Country Fair Classic.
“I actually have shin splints right now so I’ve been doing some cross-training,” Morrison said when asked if she had been one of the team’s runners hit by illness. “That’s been hard but my shins weren’t hurting too bad until toward the end of the race — like in the last half-mile or so.”
As a team, Philomath easily won the meet with 37 points. The Dalles was a distant second with 83. Senior Adele Beckstead finished third with a time of 20:01.9, freshman Cassidy Smart placed ninth in 21:12.2, senior Melea Lattin was 11th in 21:37.8 and junior Lucy King was next in 12th in 21:44.4 to account for the team’s point-scoring runners. The team’s sixth runner wasn’t far off the pace with freshman Reagan Nuno placing 14th in 21:49.3. Senior Hanna McDaniel finished 29th in 23:03.4. The varsity race had 105 runners competing.
For Morrison, she comes into races with a goal of finishing the first mile in 6:15. It’s the second mile that gives her problems.
“The second mile is where I always fall short … so I was trying to really push through that second one,” she said. “I think the trick is you just have to target people because even if you think you’re going faster, you’re not unless you’re passing people — that’s the only way to tell, I think.”
Meanwhile, Beckstead came out fast and held a significant lead through much of the first lap on the Mariman course. She led well into the second lap before The Dalles senior Alaina Casady and Junction City junior Lola Esplin caught up.
“There were a lot of other really good runners in this race and I knew that going in,” Beckstead said. “Trying to stay strong the whole race is what I wanted.”
Like many of her teammates, Beckstead had been one of the runners in the lineup trying to work through a recent illness.
“I know Adele wasn’t feeling well and she suffered in that second half,” Fulton said.
Beckstead hopes to rebuild herself to 100% as the stretch run approaches.
“There was a lot of summer training and that’s helped keep me strong during the season and injury-free,” Beckstead said. “Mostly I just tried to get a really good base so that I could build on it a lot during the season.”
This year’s Oregon West Conference Championships will be held on the course on Nov. 2.
“It was difficult out here because of the heat … and it’s not a fast course anymore because of the big section of softer wood chips that they have to run over,” Fulton said, a comment that most of the runners interviewed mentioned. “That slows it down a lot so times are quite a bit slower on this course than a lot of other courses that people run on.”
In the junior varsity girls race, senior Kateri Pindell took first place in 22:55.7 and in fact the Warriors placed all five of their entrants in the top 10. Senior Brooke McDaniel was second, sophomore Ava Panico fourth, senior Baylee Stewart fifth and junior Syd Cothern 10th.
On a side note, middle school races 3 kilometers in length were also part of the meet. Seventh grader Olivia Hernandez won in 13:19.0 with classmate Noelle Gonzalez Bush second in 13:31.4.
The PHS girls will get back into action Oct. 19 at Cottage Grove for the CG Bramble Scramble.
