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Oregon XC State Championships Recap 2014 - DyeStat

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DyeStat.com   Nov 2nd 2014, 10:49pm
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Maton takes 10 seconds off Rupp's record

 

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor


EUGENE, Ore. -- There were points late in Matthew Maton's race where he wanted to ease up because going at a clip faster than Galen Rupp ran in 2002 and 2003 hurt.


But when you're through the two-mile split in 9:30, and on pace to do something historic, it keeps you motivated.


Maton never gave up, showed the best of what he's got this fall, and sliced 10 seconds off the meet record with 14:45 at Lane Community College on a perfect weather day.


How good is that? Consider that the boys race for Class 6A -- the state's largest schools -- produced a wining time of 15:33 by Reilly Bloomer of South Eugene. And historically, that's a pretty good time on the LCC course.


But Maton, a senior at Summit of Bend, is at another level -- possibly better than Ian Dobson in 1999 and Rupp in 2003.


Alberto Salazar was on his way to the Oregon-Stanford football game when he was summoned to the state meet to take in Maton's historic run. Salazar was Rupp's high school coach at Central Catholic and he arrived in time to see the race and present the medals. He also dialed up Rupp on his cell phone and held it to the p.a. announcer's microphone so that the two-time Olympian and American record holder could offer his congratulations.


Maton ran 14:59 a year ago when a slight mishap by a course official caused him to lose a couple of seconds.


This time it was all clear sailing in a race against the clock.


"It's hard to race the clock. Unlike the other runners, you can't make a move on the clock," Maton said.


Salazar offered praise after watching Maton tour the course.


"He's very well coached by (Jim and Carol) McLatchie, who are friends of mine," he said. "He's got great lower body mechanics. I think he could be an NCAA champion some day."


Maton's run overshadowed another historic first as his Summit team scored a perfect 15 points to win the Class 5A title. All five scorers broke 16 minutes and four of them were faster than 6A champion Central Catholic's No. 1. Meanwhile, in girls 5A, sophomore Olivia Brooks won the individual title (18:10) and Summit added another team title.


In Class 6A, the big drama came with the announcement of the girls team champion. South Eugene, by virtue of a tiebreaker, knocked off defending champion Sunset after both scored 66 points. Freshman Delaney Bloomer gets the credit there for beating Sunset's sixth runner by 14 seconds.


And it was Bloomer's older brother, Reilly, who came away with the 6A boys individual title after placing second last year by five seconds. Bloomer also ended a long South Eugene drought atop the award stand. It was the first win for the Axemen boys since Brad Hudson won here in 1984. (Before that, South Eugene winners were common).

 

Central Catholic put Sam Lomax, Sam Truax and Gunnar Vik in the top 10 and won the largest classification for the eighth time in 12 years.


In the girls 6A race, Ella Donaghu of Grant briefly held thoughts of going after Melissa Lucas' 1993 course record of 17:34.9. But she thought better of going all-out for a record when she had a former champion like Sara Tsai behind her and she won in 17:51 instead. That was 10 seconds faster than Donaghu won last year's race.


Tsai, the 2012 champion, finished second in 18:09. Two years ago as a sophomore, she ran 17:42.


In the Class 4A races, senior Jakob Hiett (16:04) of Sweet Home and junior Lexi Healy of Henley (18:58) were the winners and Valley Catholic (boys) and Phoenix (girls) won the team titles.


In the Class 3A/2A/1A races, junior Fabian Cardenas of Umatilla (16:02) and freshman Sailor Hutton of Bandon (18:36) won. The team titles went to Catlin Gabel for boys and Union for girls.



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