The Philomath High School girls cross-country team participated Thursday at McMinnville in a meet that featured a number of larger schools. Despite competing at less than full strength, the Warriors placed third in the team standings and had a top-three finisher in Cassidy Smart.
Running in the Grant Robison Invitational, Smart finished in 18 minutes, 19.08 seconds, which was good for third place and represented a personal-record time for the Warriors sophomore. Smart bettered her previous PR by 30.8 seconds on a fast Joe Dancer Park course.
“The girls did great — still managed to place third despite missing one of our regular scoring runners,” PHS coach Joe Fulton said. “Everyone stepped up and had excellent races.”
Philomath’s Sienna Bushnell finished 14th in 20:07.55 — the second-highest placing among freshmen competing in the meet. Sophomore Reagan Nuño was 20th in 20:16.96 and sophomore Libby Kramer ended up 29th in 21:10.59.
Rounding out the varsity entrants for PHS were junior Pyper Rutland, who was 55th with a PR time of 22:18.04, and junior Ava Panico, who finished 66th in 23:00.01. In all, there were 118 runners in the varsity race.
Dallas senior Kelsey Rodli was first in 18:01.06 and Valley Catholic senior Isabelle Wiebe finished second in 18:06.98. Crescent Valley won the team title with 67 with Dallas second at 87 and Philomath third at 108.
The PHS boys did not compete at the meet.
The Warriors had been scheduled to participate in a meet at Estacada Wednesday but withdrew after several athletes were not available to run.
Philomath’s next competition, The Happy Hustle, is scheduled for this coming Wednesday at Crystal Lake Sports Park in Corvallis. Start times for the varsity races are listed as 5:10 p.m. for the girls and 5:40 p.m. for the boys.
PHS at Grant Robison Invitational
Thursday, Oct. 16, at Joe Dancer Park, McMinnville
Girls
Team scoring: 1, Crescent Valley 67; 2, Dallas 87; 3, Philomath 108; 4, McMinnville 121; 5, McNary 162; 6, Roseburg 168; 7, Valley Catholic 198; 8, Forest Grove 215; 9, West Albany 224; 10, Sprague 242; 11, Westside Christian 256; 12, Barlow 272; 13, Western Christian 290; 14, Woodburn 382; 15, St Helens 386.
PHS varsity results: 3, Cassidy Smart, 18:19.08; 14, Sienna Bushnell, 20:07.55; 20, Reagan Nuño, 20:16.96; 29, Libby Kramer, 21:10.59; 55, Pyper Rutland, 22:18.04; 66, Ava Panico, 23:00.01.
For complete meet results, click here
Clarification, October 17, 2025 7:32 am: This story was updated at 7:30 a.m. Friday, Oct. 17, to remove a reference to the all-time charts that may not be accurate.