OREGON STATE MEET

No. 5 Jesuit Boys Go Low; Ellery Lincoln Leads Team To Repeat;  Crater Boys, Summit Girls Prevail In 5A; Jayden Warner Wins 3A Crown With Fastest Time Of The Day

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

Photos by Becky Holbrook and Kim Spir

LIVE RESULTS

EUGENE -- The sun came out on Saturday at Lane Community College and the best programs in Oregon shined in near-ideal conditions at the Oregon state cross country championships. 

All of the state's brand names -- Jesuit, Crater, Summit, Lincoln, South Eugene, Siuslaw, Philomath and LaGrande -- had things to cheer about and new trophies to take back home to stuffed display cases. 

Perhaps the one thing that seemed completely new was a small-school runner named Jayden Warner of Warrenton, who crushed the Class 3A record, became the eighth boy in state meet history run under 15 minutes. 

Running in hope that his time might hold up for the fastest of the day, Warner raced the clock and won his race by 50 seconds in a time of 14:55.6. 

"I wanted to throw down an early fast time and set an expectation for the 5A/6A guys," Warner said. "They're fast. They might come out here and wipe that time out, but I just wanted to come out here and slam and show that 3A isn't just a smaller division, but we can be just as competitive as 5A and 6A."

Warner sought out competition throughout the fall after putting in loads of work in Texas over the summer. He won the rated race at Woodbridge in California, and he finished a close second at the Rose City Championships in Portland. 

Warner's time held up. 

Crater sophomore Garrett Faught ushed in a new generation of standouts for the Comets under coach Justin Loftus and picked up where Tayvon Kitchen left off by winning the 5A title in 14:57, becoming the first sophomore in state history to go under 15 minutes and the ninth runner overall. Crater put three in the top seven and beat rival Summit, 39-48. 

Faught broke away from Central's Ty Cirino and, and then Summit's Bjorn Blankenship, to get the win.

The 6A race went out a bit conservatively, but South Eugene's Yosuke Shibata made a devastating move in the final kilometer to gain separation of defending champion Malachi Schoenherr of Sheldon and Kellen Williams of Jesuit. 

Shibata, coached by Jeff Hess, who made a return to coaching at South this fall, won in 15:01. Schoenherr took second and Williams led an onslaught of bright yellow shirts with third. 

No. 5 Jesuit knows that standard of excellence it is trying to uphold. The 2022 team finished second at Nike Cross Nationals. That team scored 33 points at the state meet and Saturday the Crusaders scored 31, with all five scorers in the top 10. 

"It's a really fun to have this experience with seven guys, and we have an eighth guy who could be up there any day," Jackson Welsh, who was fourth, said. "We've got to take it one step at a time before we can put ourselves with them (the 2022 team)."

Jesuit will get a chance to race Idaho champion Coeur d'Alene in a rematch for the NXR Northwest title next weekend in Spokane. 

Lincoln's boys, led by the sixth and seventh place finishers Peter James and Malcolm Dimoff, finished second with 60 points. 

Corbin Sage of Marist stepped to the forefront as well with a victory in the Class 4A race in 15:56. Sage, a junior, is the son of Illinois prep legend Don Sage, and is a rising talent. 

LaGrande won the team title with 61 points, and the girls followed suit to complete a 4A sweep with 51 points.

Siuslaw won the 3A boys title with 88 points, led by Henry Stone's fourth-place finish. 

Wyatt Jacobson led Knappa to the 2A/1A team title with his individual win in 16:17.58 in the first race of the day.

Ellery Lincoln Wins First State XC Title

The Class 6A girls race played out nearly identical to the Rose City Championship in October. 

North Salem's Nelida Dalgas went hard from the start and tried to break the spirit of the field. But Ellery Lincoln, both then and Saturday, was the one runner able to stay within hailing distance and then surged past her inside the final half mile. 

"It felt harder," Lincoln said after the state race. "Nelly's very difficult to beat. She makes the races really hard and she makes all of us better."

Lincoln ran 17:11 for her first state cross country title, running a time nearly the same as Chloe Huyler last year. 

Lincoln, a junior, recently announced a college commitment to run at the University of Oregon, and she was excited to win in her future hometown. But she was also proud of her team, which made considerable gains over the past two months and won the team title for the second year in a row with 94 points. 

In the 5A race, Summit bounced back from its rare loss in 2024, which ended a 15-year win streak. To do it, the Storm overtook Crater, which got out fast and led by 12 points at the 2k mark. 

Caldera's Maddie Carney won the individual title in 17:51. 

Philomath's Cassidy Smart kicked with 300 to go and got away from LaGrande's Brooke Perry to win by 13 seconds in 18:34.

Coquille's Emma Henthorn won the 3A/2A/1A race despite missing several weeks with mono in the middle of the season. Henthorn ran 18:15 and won by 26 seconds. 

Banks, led by Washington recruit Sophie Schoolmeester and younger sister Molly Schoolmeester, won the team title.  

Team Champions -

Class 6A - Jesuit boys 31 points, Lincoln girls 94 points - RESULTS

Class 5A - Crater boys 39 points, Summit girls 51 points - RESULTS

Class 4A - LaGrande boys 61 points, LaGrande girls 51 points - RESULTS

Class 3A - Siuslaw boys 88 points - RESULTS

Class 3A/2A/1A - Banks girls 56 points - RESULTS

Class 2A/1A - Knappa boys 38 points - RESULTS