TDHS X Country: The Trophy & the Tent: Bridget Nelson and Baker meets

By Jill Pearson Bell

The new cross-country tent is a beast. It was a gift from the athletic department, replacing the one damaged by lightning and hail at track districts last year; a 20 by 10 foot mass of steel that tends to dwarf the runners carrying it.

It’s the first marker that The Dalles has arrived at a meet, the last thing to get tucked under the bus, and a nice visual aid for how a resolutely individual sport can come together as a team. Towards the beginning of the season, the runners stand around the tent bag, waiting for someone else to take action: upperclassmen wait for the freshmen, while the freshmen wait for the seniors. Sometimes no one moves and it gets left behind entirely.

Somewhere after the middle of the season, after their first team dinner and Saturday run, though, the dynamic shifts. Within minutes and without any prompting, the shoes are laced, the teams are warming up, and the tent is up. Heavy tents may well be how strong teams are made. These past two weeks the Riverhawk runners have been hard at work, leading their home course by example at the Bridget Nelson meet, and holding their own at the Baker Invitational.

Bridget Nelson, Sept. 22

The further into the season they go, the more “clumped” The Dalles boys’ team continues to run, which paid off with a team score of 30 points at Bridget Nelson. While Heppner senior Grady Greenwood handily won the varsity race, second through fourth were swept by The Dalles in the mid 18’s, with Tyson Long (18:27) leading the trio of Egan Ziegenhagen (18:38) and Aiden Erickson (18:40). Caleb Caldwell, Noah Preston, and Josef Lutz finished under 20, with 7th runner Gabriel Castillo battling illness for 18th place. The deep JV team swept their race, with the first five places going to Riverhawk runners, for a combined team score of 15: Trey Hodges (19:28), Sawyer Dray (19:31), Zeb Stelzer (19:46), and Steven Pereira (19:51).

The girls’ race, despite having only three complete teams (a full varsity team requires five to score, but ideally seven), was tightly matched. Sandy came in third with 50, and The Dalles and Heppner tied with 36 points each. Ties in cross country are typically broken by the sixth runner- typically a non-scorer- and on Friday that sixth was freshman Kestley Hodges. Hodges decided she was going to “try running” a little over a year ago, and her determination paid off well with an 18th-place finish at 24:34.

Ahead of Hodges was fellow newcomer Laura Black, a minute behind the trio in the 23’s of Ruby Jaimes Mora (23 flat), Nayeli Vergara (23:02), and Abigail Pope over five minutes faster on the course than last year at 23:32. All eyes were on the front of the field, though, as Heppner sophomore Lily Nichol led the race at 20:30, with Dalles junior Alaina Casady less than a minute behind her. “Mentally the toughest part of the course isn’t the hill,” Casady commented. “It’s the last loop when you’re back in the park; when you can see the finish but still have 1000 to go.”

Baker, Sept. 28

The concept of being farther than it looks definitely hit home the next week in Baker, on the rolling hills of the Quail Ridge golf course near 3500 in elevation. While the course’s one serpentining loop appeared relatively flat, the openness betrayed a number of hills. However, the competition was perfect- the tough, competitive 4A schools of eastern Oregon were in full force, bringing out good races for most of the Riverhawk squad.

It was a particularly good day for sophomore Aiden Erickson, who came in first for the TD harriers for the first time at 11th place in 18:32, nine seconds ahead of teammate Tyson Long. His racing strategy had been to go out with Long, and assess at each mile if he could give more. At each mile, he found he could, and his long stride into the finish helped the team come in second after Union. Fellow sophomore Steven Pereira also saw a phenomenal race, with a 7th place on the team at an all-time PR of 19:33. The rest of the varsity Riverhawk runners finished in the low 19’s, which adjusted for altitude would still give them consistent times. For the JV races, although very few runners saw PR’s, newcomer Ivan Martinez did take a minute off his time from Bridget Nelson, while sophomore and return runner Kaedyn Linker shaved off 20 seconds, finishing at 25:13.

For the second week in a row, consistency paid off for Heppner’s Lily Nichol (3rd) and The Dalles’ Alaina Casady (5th), both finishing within a second of their times at Bridget Nelson. They finished amid a sea of blue, with top-ranked LaGrande girls coming in first, second, fourth, and sixth, familiar faces from the state meet last year. Like the boys’ race, the Riverhawk girls ran consistently, with few PR’s- but a notable one-minute improvement for freshman Riley Elliot, sporting her mom’s cross country hoodie after the race.

Tired from their races and the altitude, the Riverhawk runners made for the four-hour trek home, with their tent proudly- and quickly- carried ahead of them.

This week, The Dalles JV heads to Heppner on Thursday, Oct. 5 for the Mustang Invitational in Morrow County while the varsity teams go to Philomath for the Paul Mariman Invite. You can follow their schedule and times on athletic.net.