The Philomath High School cross-country team competed in a rare midweek meet with an appearance Wednesday in The Happy Hustle and several runners had all-time best times on a flat, fast course at Crystal Lake Sports Park in Corvallis.
Senior Adele Beckstead, junior Leo Pausch and freshman Cassidy Smart each had top-10 performances — all three among those that broke their personal records for 5 kilometers. Beckstead trimmed 9.2 seconds off her previous best with an 18:33.14, which was good for fourth place overall. Smart placed eighth in 19:25.65, more than 30 seconds faster than her previous best and the second time she’s finished under 20 minutes.
Senior Hallie Morrison finished 12th in 20:07.95, freshman Reagan Nuno was 17th with a PR time of 20:26.40, junior Lucy King came in 20th in 20:44.12 and senior Hanna McDaniel was 22nd with a PR time of 20:51.50.
In a race with 100 runners, those results would almost always give the Warriors a team victory but 5A Crescent Valley, the meet’s host school, had five runners among the top 15 to take first with 47 points. Philomath was second with 61, well ahead of the other 13 schools competing with full teams.
Meanwhile, the boys were missing some dual-sport athletes and couldn’t enter a full squad to be included in the team standings. Individually, Pausch placed seventh in 15:54.27, which was 4.3 seconds faster than the time he turned in at the Nike Portland meet in late September.
Sophomore Galen Murch was 26th in 17:19.15 and senior JJ Lewis finished 54th in 18:05.78, a career-best time. The race had 120 entries.
In the junior varsity races, the Philomath girls had three entrants and they all finished in the top six out of 71 runners — senior Brooke McDaniel taking first (21:54.43), sophomore Ava Panico in fourth (23:02.14) and senior Baylee Stewart in sixth (23:15.96). Panico and Stewart had PRs.
Senior Seth Wood was the top boys JV finisher in 20th (19:50.71). All eight PHS boys in the JV race had PR times with Wood and sophomore Oakley Pausch (22nd, 19:56.69) finishing under 20 minutes for the first time.
Philomath will compete next in the Oregon West Conference Championships on Saturday, Nov. 2. North Marion is this season’s district meet host but the competition will take place at Philomath. The varsity races will begin at 11:15 a.m. with the girls followed by the boys. The JV races will follow beginning at 12:30 p.m.
