Central Oregonian

Crook County favored to win both boys and girls titles

Grayson Munn expected to contend for individual championship at meet, which will be held in La Grande

Lon Austin

October 25, 2012

When the gun sounds to start the Greater Oregon League Cross Country Championships this Saturday, Crook County will be the favorites to win both the boys and girls titles at the meet.

However, just because Crook County is the favorite doesn’t mean that they will automatically qualify for the state championships.

For the past couple of years, the Greater Oregon league has had such a scarcity of varsity runners that almost all a team had to do to qualify for the state meet was get five runners to the finish line. That is no longer the case this year. Not only has Ridgeview been added to the league, several of the other schools are the strongest they have been in years.

Grayson Munn is the early favorite to win the boys individual title. Munn ran a time of 16:45.3 in his last race prior to district and seems to be peaking at just the right time. However, defending champion Nic Maszk, of Baker, is just behind, having a season-best time of 16:58.23. La Grande’s Elliott Jonasson should also be in contention.

Crook County’s Luis Rivera should also finish in the top five at the meet, while Liam Pickhardt, Cody Thurman, and Blake George are all ranked in the top 15 in the district.

Justin Glass and Pitt?Lee are also expected to run in the varsity race for the Cowboys.

Based on season-best times, the Cowboys would score 41 points in the meet followed by Baker with 70. La Grande, Mac Hi, Ridgeview, and Ontario are all expected to battle for third place in the meet.

On the girls side, La Grande’s Amanda Welch is the early favorite with a season-best time of 19:19.90. Mac Hi’s Josie Lonai is expected to be Welch’s chief competition with a season-best time of 19:35.20. Ridgeview’s Dakota Steen has the third-best time in the league (20:24.5) with Mac Hi’s Susie Romero-Diaz close behind (20:51.70).

Then comes a tightly- bunched pack of Cowgirls.

Carly Hibbs, Ashton Morgan, Natalie Stenbeck, Irene Morales, Charsie Brewer, and Kelsee Martin are all expected to finish in the top 15 in the race. The seventh Cowgirl, Kylee Swensen, should also finish in the top 20.

Crook County is projected to finish the meet with 40 points with Mac Hi close behind with 50. Ridgeview is expected to finish in third, with La Grande taking fourth place.

However, unlike the boys race, where there is a clear gap between first and second place, the girls competition figures to be a lot closer, so anything could happen.

The district meet will be held on the south end of the Eastern Oregon University Campus. All parking is in the gravel parking lot behind the football stadium and all athletes and spectators are asked to stay off of the football field.

Races are scheduled to start with the girls varsity race at 11 a.m., followed by the boys varsity race at 11:45 a.m. The boys and girls JV races are scheduled to begin at approximately 12:30 and 1:15 p.m.

The top two boys and girls teams qualify for the state championships as well as the top four individuals who are not on either of the top two teams.

The state cross country championships will be held at Lane Community College, in Eugene.

Races are scheduled to begin with the Class 3A/2A/1A girls race at 10 a.m. The Class 4A girls race starts at 11:15 a.m., with the boys race beginning at 11:50 a.m.