Central Oregonian

Munn wins La Pine Invitational

Stenbeck finishes seventh in girls race as Cowgirls finish second, Cowboys third

Lon Austin

October 11, 2012

Grayson Munn was the individual winner as the Cowboys took third at the La Pine Invitational Cross Country Meet on Tuesday.

Munn finished the two-mile course in a time of 11:01.72 to easily outdistance Bend’s Peter Schwartz, who finished second with a time of 11:24.06.

“The guy that got second at the Breese Ranch earlier this year — who beat Munn by 20 seconds — Munn beat by 20 seconds in a two-mile,” said Crook County head coach Tracy Smith. “That’s a huge margin in such a short race.”

Munn wasn’t the only Crook County runner to have an outstanding race. Natalie Stenbeck had her best race of the year as she took seventh in the girls race with a time of 14:48. Stenbeck’s performance helped propel the Cowgirls to second place in the team championship at the event.

What made Crook County’s showing at the event even more impressive was that the team didn’t even know that they were running in the meet until Monday. Half of the team was unable to attend the event.

“It was a last-minute thing,” Smith said. “But, I felt like we haven’t had enough races to get our legs in racing shape. I think the kids ran well considering that only about half the team actually ran.”

Bend won both the boys and girls meets, with scores of 21 and 15 points respectively.

La Pine finished second in the boys meet with 50 points followed by Crook County with 68, and Elmira (182). Crook County’s girls scored 68 points while Elmira was third with 75 points.

Irene Morales finished 16th for the Cowgirls with a time of 15:17. She was followed by Ashton Morgan who finished 17th with a time of 15:20, Charsie Brewer (25th in 16:59), Tobi Hanes (30th in 16:26), and Kylee Swensen (32nd in 16:32).

Blake George was the second Cowboy to finish with a time of 12:17.51. He was followed by Nathan Carmack (19th in 12:25.08), Cody Thurman (21st in 12:35.44), Pit Lee (26th in 12:52.85), and Dustin Seyl (53rd in 14:27.25.)

Crook County is back in action Saturday when they compete in the Concordia Classic which is held at Fernhill Park in Portland.

“I’m feeling like the kids are still hungry to race, whereas if we had raced every week they might be kind of weary mentally and physically,” Smith said. “I think that they are fired up to get a better time and to PR (set personal records) and I think we are right on schedule.”