Three varsity runners finished in the top 10 individually for Philomath High School Saturday at a large cross-country meet in Eugene.
Competing in the Northwest Classic against athletes from 66 other schools, senior Adele Beckstead finished fourth in the girls race and juniors Leo Pausch and Lukas Hernandez placed fifth and 10th, respectively, in the boys race.
In the team standings, Philomath’s girls finished lower than one might expect but was missing two of its top three runners with Ana Candanoza and Cassidy Smart not in the lineup. The girls finished third overall behind 4A Klamath Union and 3A Oregon Episcopal. The Pelicans had 104 points with OES at 109 and Philomath at 119.
Coach Joe Fulton said it was just the second time in three years that the PHS girls had lost to another 4A school.
The boys finished sixth in the team standings out of the 26 schools that had full teams. West Linn edged Cottage Grove for the team title.
But those individual results for Philomath were notable. Beckstead broke 19 minutes for the first time in her exceptional high school running career with a time of 18:53.1. Meanwhile, Pausch shattered his personal record with his time of 16:18.7, which was 23.1 seconds faster than his previous best. Hernandez ran his best time this season and missed a PR by only a half of a second with a 16:42.0.
Elsewhere for the girls, senior Hallie Morrison (18th, 20:17.0), junior Lucy King (34th, 21:10.6) and senior Hanna McDaniel (49th, 22:06.0) had solid races, Fulton said. He added that freshman Reagan Nuno (47th, 21:51.1) and senior Melea Lattin (68th, 22:44.0) were under the weather and struggled to breathe properly. Senior Brooke McDaniel also ran varsity (76th, 23:01.6) in a race with 172 entries.
For the boys, sophomore Galen Murch (64th, 18:15.2), senior JJ Lewis (74th, 18:43.3) and sophomore Jacob Hernandez (76th, 18:44.7) completed the team’s varsity entries in a race with 219 runners.
Among the junior varsity results, senior Kateri Pindell and sophomore Ava Panico had top-five finishes at third and fifth, respectively.
Philomath will now gear up for an appearance in the Nike Portland meet Sept. 28 at Blue Lake Regional Park in Fairview. The Warriors will have a girls squad running at 8 a.m. and a boys team at 9:10 a.m. Beckstead is entered in an elite race scheduled for a 9:30 a.m. start.
