Canby runners PR at state cross country meet – Pamplin Media Group

Canby girls finished 15th out of 21 Class 6A teams Saturday at Lane Community College

Canby seniors Izabela Kacalek, Jennifer Torres, Kahleia Rose, Emma Ulven and Matthew Powell all ran personal best times as the Cougars took part in the fastest OSAA state cross country meet ever Saturday at Lane Community College in Eugene.

“On the girls side, there’s never been so much talent with Summit’s girls being defending national champions and having everybody back,” Canby coach Tom Millbrooke said. “This Jesuit team is probably better than a lot of Jesuit teams that won the state title. Times were phenomenally fast at every level.”

Summit senior Fiona Max finished the Class 6A girls race in 16 minutes, 51.8 seconds, the fastest time in Oregon high school history. Sixteen girls ran in under 18 minutes.

“It was certainly a high watermark for distance girl runners in Oregon,” Millbrooke said. “We’re a part of that, but maybe we’re a victim of it, too, a little bit. That’s fine.”

Out of more than 150 runners, Kacalek finished 27th in 18:25.2 and Torres placed 32nd in 18:34.3.

Noelani Hernandez (21:01.8), Rose (21:15.4) and Ulven (21:27.8) rounded out Canby’s top five.

The Cougars finished 15th out of 21 teams.

“Our girls competed well,” Millbrooke said. “We were a distant third at districts coming in. You don’t want to go down to the state meet and lay an egg or anything and I thought we competed well. Fifteenth out of 21 is certainly a fair place. That’s where we belong. If we could have ran awesome, maybe we would have been 10th or 12th, but we certainly didn’t run terrible if we can beat six other teams that qualified for state.”

Three Rivers League teams, Tualatin and West Linn, placed eighth and ninth.

“The state meet is always a little different beast because. at least with our program, it’s not constant familiar territory,” Millbrooke said. “Hopefully it will get to be that again a little bit. I was pleased with the whole season. In some ways the state meet is a reward and we earned our way there and performed pretty well.”

Running in the 6A boys race, Powell and Tommy O’Neil finished in 16:39.3 and 17:45.4, respectively.

“Tommy is a victim of having the race of his life last week at districts,” Millbrooke said. “As a sophomore, it’s pretty hard to duplicate that back-to-back. He just wasn’t on his game, not that the effort wasn’t there. It was not his day. It’s good that he got down there and got the experience to see what it’s like, and maybe in some ways got humbled a little bit. He had such a tremendous race last week. It’s pretty hard sometimes to repeat that.”

Derek Wiley
Reporter
503-263-6831
email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Follow us on Twitter