MHC DISTRICT MEET

MOUNT HOOD CONFERENCE DISTRICT MEET
24 OCTOBER, 2007
CENTENNIAL HIGH SCHOOL

After two absolutely glorious days of sunshine, hopes were very high as the Rams traveled to Centennial for the Mount Hood Conference District Meet. The District Meet serves as both the State Meet qualifier and, combined with the dual meet results from previous weeks, the League Championship. The Ram men entered the meet with a perfect 7-0 dual meet record this season and six consecutive District Meet victories dating back to 2001. Given the health and motivation of this group, a seventh straight win appeared likely.

Centennial’s on-campus layout has proven over the years to be a very fast course, but late afternoon rains today turned the normally solid footing to a muddy mess – and dashed most hopes for PRs. Regardless, the CC harriers were there to race; in some cases this would be the culmination of months of training, while others would use this day as a stepping stone to next week’s State Meet in Eugene.

The junior varsity race was the final race of the day and was an excellent team affair with Reynolds’ deep group of runners challenging the Rams’ half-decade stranglehold on the un-official JV championship (no team scores are kept for the JV race). Individually the race was expected to be a dual between CC’s #7 and #8 varsity runners, CONOR ROLAND-CHICVARA ’09 and CURRAN CARLILE ’10. Both have run 16:47 this season and traded victories at different venues along the way. Today’s race, in addition to anointing the JV League Champ, would have great impact on our choice for seventh man in Eugene next weekend.

In the first mile, two Reynolds runners lead with our duo content to run 10-15m in arrears. Soon, though, Conor and Curran moved to the front and their duel was on. Side by side they raced through two miles until Curran moved strongly away over the last 2km for a great win in 17:17. While it’s difficult to guess how slow the muddy track was, suffice to say that Curran’s time – on a course that became slower with each subsequent race – would have been good for 9th in the earlier varsity race. Conor’s 17:42 was 45 seconds up on the third place finisher and would have earned him 14th in the varsity race. It’s also worth noting that Curran would have been in individual qualifier to the State Meet had he been in the varsity race – and not a member of the CCHS squad. Conor’s effort was only three seconds out of that individual qualifying mark.

With the individual title decided, the JV team race was still to be won further back in the pack. Reynolds’ group had gotten out well with our boys moving up after the mile. Juniors MATT HOLMES and CONOR CAMPBELL followed the Raider’s third man while JIM McCOLLUM ’08, GABE LATHROP ’10, EVERETT STILLEY ’10, and GREG CRUZ ’11 mixed it up with another large group of green and black clad runners. As they passed two miles, Holmes and Campbell moved past Reynolds’ #3 while McCollum had surged ahead of his own teammates amid a quartet of Raiders. As they approached the track with 300m left, Holmes sat comfortably in 6th place with Campbell – in his best race of the fall – closing in 7th. Reynolds’ #3 was next, trailed by our fourth, McCollum. Jimmy Mac had made a great move over the last mile to overtake a passel of rivals, but he was unable to hold on. Regardless, he had run a great race to finish 13th and seal the win for his team, 29 – 34. Stilley, Lathrop, and Cruz all closed admirably in 16th, 17th, and 18th; for Stilley it was certainly his best race of the season while Cruz had the 6th best mark among all freshmen on the day. Lathrop has had a solid if unspectacular season, and the coaching staff feels strongly that he has the stuff to be a very big contributor over the next two seasons.

LUCAS WEISENSEE ’09 had no teammates to help him along, but his 25th place effort – of 96 finishers – was a 27 place improvement over his ’06 slot. A bit further back was hard-charging freshman MARC ANDRE in 28th. Marc got a late start to the season, but improved virtually every week – and his race here showed that he clearly could be a Ram to watch in the future. On this day he was content early on to run conservatively with a quartet of teammates – LUKE MILLER ’11, RICK SULLIVAN ’11, WARREN DEGENHARDT ’10, and NATHAN COLLINS ’10. Although none could match Marc’s late race surge, each ran very well in his own right. Miller moved up 10 places over the final ¾ mile to finish 40th, with Sullivan holding on for 48th. Degenhardt has made incredible improvement over the season, knocking 2 ½ minutes off his initial 5000m effort only five weeks ago in notching a 52nd place finish here. Collins did not have his best day of the season, but the competitive aspect of his running was apparent here as he came home 60th.

Many of these athletes will compete next Tuesday at Westmoreland in an all-comers meet and then continue on to the State Junior Olympics at Sandy HS on November 10th; on the other hand, our athletes in the varsity race secured a date with the state’s best next Saturday, November 3rd, at Lane Community College, by virtue of a dominating win here at Centennial.

At the gun today we planned to go straight to the front and see what we could do with a hard first mile. TAYLOR MORGAN ’08, MUSA AHMED ’10, JOEL TURKHEIMER ’08, and SAMOT TURINA ’09 got out well and were accompanied by only Hood River’s Leo Castillo after the first quarter mile. PETER SLAUSON ’10 and AUSTIN JONES ’08 were stuck in the pack during the narrow start, but moved up easily as the race course became less congested. At 700m Samot hit the deck negotiating one of the many treacherous turns and was quickly caught by his teammates and Reynolds’ Daniel Vo.

By the mile, there were two distinct quartets, both counting three Rams among their members. Up front Joel was doing most of the hard work, leading at a very honest pace, while Musa, Taylor, and HRV’s Castillo appeared content to bide their time. By two miles Castillo had made a strong move and broken up the party; Joel led the chase pack, but Musa and Taylor were never far away. With about 700m to go, it appeared that Leo’s advantage had shrunk with Joel and Taylor closing in. 200m later Taylor had a bead on Leo, and it seemed only a matter of time until he unleashed his powerful kick for the victory. As they descended to the track Morgan went into overdrive and passed Castillo with 200m left; the sheer speed that Morgan possesses is truly impressive, and it was on full display as he put six seconds on the Eagle senior over the final furlong.

Not far behind, Musa and Joel staged a great battle for 3rd and 4th place with the sophomore finding greater turnover down the straight to claim his first-ever MHC First Team Award; Joel, too, was earning his first award in the finest race of his season. A healthy and confident Joel Turkheimer will certainly go a long ways towards the team’s defense of the state title.

About fifteen seconds back Jones, Turina, and Slauson had long since dropped Vo and hit the track in 5th, 6th, and 7th, positions that they’d keep all the way to the finish. For Slauson, this was a very fine effort as he had struggled at adidas-Concordia ten days earlier and needed a strong race to boost his confidence going into the State Meet. Jones continued his somewhat surprising excellent season as very few could have predicted he’d improve from 4th in last year’s JV race to 5th this year as a varsity runner. For Turina, his early tumble seemed to take much out of him, but his workmanlike performance here is the stuff we’ve come to expect from him; he has always been a big meet performer, and the meets do not get much bigger than next week’s state championship affair.

Filling out the varsity squad on this day was senior AARON PECORA in 35th place. While Aaron has not had the type of senior season for which we had all hoped, his diligence and personal contributions to the make up of this team have been great positives; his leadership for many of the JV runners has been invaluable, and it was a pleasure to see him today take part in the victory celebration with his team and classmates.

Results from the meet can be found here:

Next up for your Rams is the Oregon State Meet at Lane Community College in Eugene on Saturday, November 3rd. We’ll be shooting for our third straight team title and fourth in the last five years. As usual, there are a number of teams hoping to stop us, notably our rivals from the west side, Jesuit.

It promises to be a great contest; the meet begins at 10am with 1A/2A/3A competition; our race – the final one of the day – commences at 3:10pm. Hope to see you there!