Taking the course at Stayton Saturday with its top two runners unavailable to compete, the Philomath High School girls cross-country team seemed to be in a vulnerable position to add another piece of hardware to the trophy case.
The thought turned out to be a fallacy.
Freshman Cassidy Smart and senior Hallie Morrison had a 2-3 finish, freshman Reagan Nuno and senior Melea Lattin were among the top 12 and the fifth scoring runner was among the top 25 to help the Warriors to a sizable victory over runner-up Dallas and the six other schools that competed with full squads.
“This was a great demonstration of our depth,” PHS coach Joe Fulton said. “It doesn’t seem to matter which five runners score — we always do well.”
Meanwhile, junior Lukas Hernandez took first place individually in the boys’ race and all five of Philomath’s runners finished within the top 30 to edge the host school by just four points for top team honors.
Fulton noted that the girls team won despite racing without four runners on the team roster that have earned all-state cross-country honors. The Warriors ended up with 39 points with Dallas second (68), Pleasant Hill third (83) and Stayton fourth (92).
Smart, who has yet to finish a race this season outside of the top 10, had the team’s best time at 20:12.4 for second place behind Dallas junior Kelsey Rodli, who blazed the field in 19:33.41. Morrison has also been a top-10 fixture on 5-kilometer courses and she was third in 20:17.5.
Nuno finished ninth (21:19.81), Lattin was 12th (21:30.84) and senior Hanna McDaniel came in 24th (23:06.88). Senior Brooke McDaniel rounded out the varsity lineup and wasn’t far out of the team’s fifth spot with 27th (23:28.19) in a field of 74 runners.
In meets against full opposing squads, Philomath now has a 39-1 record, Fulton noted.
The PHS boys were also running without a top runner but Hernandez had a strong performance to win by less than 2 seconds over Central Linn junior Jackson Duringer. Hernandez came in with a time of 17:29.62.
Senior JJ Lewis finished 14th (19:07.35), sophomore Galen Murch was right behind him in 15th (19:08.72), sophomore Jacob Hernandez came in 18th (19:19.67) and junior Mason Stevens finished 30th (19:41.28). Those five runners represented the full varsity squad with no entries in the No. 6 or No. 7 slots.
Seventeen schools competed for the team title with Philomath scoring 78 and Stayton finishing second with 82. Monroe (112) and Harrisburg (137) were a distant third and fourth, respectively.
Fulton said the boys are now 58-4 against complete teams.
In the 3,000-meter junior varsity races, the girls had only three runners but all of them finished in the top five — sophomore Ava Panico won in 13:59.66, senior Baylee Stewart was fourth in 14:45.67 and junior Syd Cothern placed fifth in 14:53.47.
The JV boys finished second behind Stayton and had two runners in the top five with freshman Samuel Hernandez in third in 11:43.25 and freshman Dreyton Nuno in fourth in 11:55.71.
Philomath’s next meet is coming up Sept. 21 at the Northwest Classic in Eugene. Staged at Lane Community College, the competition’s 1A-4A varsity races are scheduled for 12:20 p.m. (girls) and 1 p.m. (boys). The meet also includes divisions for middle school (10 and 10:30 a.m.), open JV (11 and 11:40 a.m.), team-scored JV (1:40 and 2:20 p.m.) and 5A-6A varsity (3 and 3:40 p.m.).
