Philomath High’s roster depth went on display Saturday with both the boys and girls cross-country teams easily winning the Cottage Grove Bramble Scramble.
The girls had five of the top runners and finished first with 21 points to outdistance Junction City (58), Cottage Grove (66) and Phoenix (89). Sophomore Adele Beckstead was the individual winner.
Philomath’s boys also placed five runners among the top seven and compiled 23 points to beat out Cottage Grove (37), Phoenix (80), Junction City (105) and Waldport (130).
“It was a small meet and probably the easiest meet we will have this season, but Cottage Grove, Phoenix and Junction City are all worthy opponents. We were just too deep for them,” PHS coach Joe Fulton said. “When I say easy, it was easy because of the size and lack of competition. But it was a hard course and the times were slower than previous races.”
Beckstead covered the course in 20:37.73 and won by 39 seconds over runner-up Kyla Potratz, a senior from Phoenix who placed third at last year’s state meet. Beckstead led the race from start to finish.
Freshman Ana Candanoza placed third in 21:35.71 and senior Ingrid Hellesto was fourth in 21:53.86. Sophomores Hallie Morrison and Kateri Pindell placed sixth and seventh, respectively. Morrison came in at 22:32.39 and Pindell was right behind at 22:33.59.
Freshman Lucy King finished 10th with a time of 23:04.83. Sophomore Hanna McDaniel rounded out the varsity entrants and was 17th in 24:35.62.
In the boys’ race, Cottage Grove senior Jaden Owens won in 17:28.11 on his home course with Philomath senior Mateo Candanoza second in 17:35.92 and senior Ben Hernandez third in 17:51.99. Senior Brody Bushnell was fifth in 18:50.66, freshman Leo Pausch was sixth in 19:09.84 and senior Jesse Erickson placed seventh in 19:26.43 to account for Philomath’s team score.
Freshman Lukas Hernandez gave Philomath six runners in the top 10 with his 10th-place showing in 19:35.74.
Philomath will head to the Woahink Lake Invitational on Saturday, Oct. 1 with the varsity races scheduled for 1:15 p.m. (boys) and 1:45 p.m. (girls).
