Philomath High’s Leo Pausch likely has high aspirations for his senior season on the cross-country team.
From an individual standpoint, a podium appearance would fit in with the goals of a high-level athlete and perhaps he turns in times that attract the attention of college programs. And from a team perspective, Pausch’s talents on the cross-country course could help boost the Warriors to a state title.
It’s the latter goal that has been a common theme with Philomath traditionally among the best statewide with consistent results year after year. The Warriors hope to be in contention this fall for the program’s fifth state title and first since 2019.
“We emphasize the team aspect of it and that’s why we’ve been so successful,” PHS coach Joe Fulton said. “A lot of schools, they’re just excited to get an individual qualified for state and for us, it’s always about getting the team to state.”
Fulton sees that approach as a motivator.
“I think that helps the individual because when a good runner like Leo has a team behind him that wants to win a team trophy, he’s going to run harder,” Fulton said. “That’s always been the emphasis for us.”
Pausch is in fantastic shape heading into the season, the coach said.
“Leo obviously is going to be a contender for the state title,” Fulton said. “He’s got competition — there’s a kid from Marshfield who is very good but he’ll be up there. He’s tough and he wants to win state and run well under 16 minutes so he’s pretty focused and he’s got the attitude.”
Last season, Pausch placed fifth individually with a time of 16:19.1.
“He was in third with a 100 meters to go and some of those people who graduated finished ahead of him,” Fulton said, a reference to the top two placers — Cottage Grove’s Carter Bengtson and Marist Catholic’s Conor Thompson.
The team’s other senior, Lukas Hernandez, also returns as one of the program’s top runners. Junior Galen Murch has steadily improved and should be a major factor when it comes to team points.
“Lukas is getting there — he dealt with some injuries after track season but he’s coming on now,” Fulton said. “Galen is in great shape — he ran a lot this summer.”
Hernandez was 13th at state last year and Murch finished 40th.
“We just need to develop a couple more guys to back them up and we should be in the thick of things,” Fulton said.
New to the team this season is junior Cam Herbert, who switched up his plan for fall sports and went out for cross-country. Herbert appears to be showing a lot of promise with Fulton saying, “He sticks up with Galen and Leo on the distance runs.”
Two more Hernandez brothers, junior Jacob Hernandez and sophomore Sammy Hernandez, factor into the lineup as well.
“They seem to have a pretty positive attitude this year and they’re obviously talented,” Fulton said.
An impact freshman could be Everett Ferguson.
“He’s been surprising me,” Fulton said. “He ran a lot over the summer and you can tell because he’s much better than he was in middle school.”
Juniors Oakley Pausch and Rex Sederlin and sophomores Rowan Jessen, Caelan Kreps and Mika Laukkanen Raskauskas are also on the roster. In addition to Ferguson, other freshmen include Cameron Barlow, Braeden Colvin, Milo Morrison, Abisai Navarette and Maddox Olsen.
“We’ve got all sorts of young kids that are out for the first time and we’re just waiting to see what happens,” Fulton said.
The coach should find out more about his team’s talent level at Friday’s 3-kilometer race at Western Oregon University. Philomath was ranked No. 1 in the OSAAtoday preseason coaches poll released Wednesday.
“That should give us a little bit of an idea and then the next week, we go to our hardest course and that’ll really give me an idea to see who’s tough,” Fulton said, referring to the Ultimook Race on Sept. 6 near Tillamook.
