Southwest Conference Girls Midseason Report

In a hypothetical meet South Eugene runs away with the Girls title if the Southwest Conference Districts were held today and all runners ran their best race. Their score in this hypothetical race (courtesy of www.athletic.net) would be 33. Second place goes Sheldon getting 65, third to North Medford 74, and South Medford is fourth with 78. With a couple weeks remaining before districts, there can definately be room for improvement by any of the remaining teams.

However, South Eugene's last two races have not featured all of their varsity runners and it is unknown to me if the just had other obligations, or have an injury that could change this lineup. Sheldon is on the move, coming back to beat Washington Powerhouse Bellermine Prep at Puma after losing to them at Northwest Classic.

South Eugene on paper has 3 runners under 20 minutes, Alayna Oleksa, Lauren Graebner and Taylor Droutet and 4 runners under 21, Whitney Pitman, Brookie Wilson, Lauren Harvey, and Hannah Gissel. Brookie Wilson has not raced since Predistricts, but may be playing soccer or another sport and been unable to run in the last few races, so I am unable to judge improvement she may have made in that time.


Sheldon has Casey Masterson who is my pick for District Champion at this time being the only runner in the conference to break 19 minutes, she is baked up by 4 girls under 21 minutes all of which have showed recent improvment, Madison Randall, Nori Rice, Katherine Barnhart, and Amy Nelson.

North Medford has 1 runner under 20, Brittney Dunn, and 2 runners under 21, Jade Severson and Statia Smith. The remainder of varsity is made up by by Davina Leyva, Jennifer Berry and Ashley Berry in with times of 21:4 to 22:38. They had the Adidas Invite next week where they will face Sheldon head to head.

South Medford has on runner who has broken 20 minutes in Freshman Kelsey Bradshaw who ran 19:56.45 at Nike Jim Danner, three girls are under 21 minutes in Piper Delaney, Kelley Weber and Amy Furland, and two runners are under 22 in Tayler Harrington and Julia Chelgren.

Top Ten Times:
Casey Masterson, Sheldon - 18:26 Northwest Classic
Brittney Dunn, North Medford - 19:33 South Salem
Alayna Oleska, South Eugene - 19:34 Nike Jim Danner
Lauren Graebner, South Eugene - 19:43 Nike Jim Danner
Taylor Drouet, South Eugene - 19:51 Nike Jim Danner
Lorine Cruz, Grants Pass - 19:53 Nike Jim Danner
Kelsey Bradshaw, South Medford - 19:56 Nike Jim Danner
Whitney Pitman, South Eugene - 20:02 Nike Jim Danner
Jade Severson, North Medford - 20:05 Chieftain Invite
Madison Randall, Sheldon - 20:08, Puma Invite