Sports Appeal Tribune, www.silvertonappeal.com B1 Wednesday, November 9, 2016 Kennedy’s Kaylin Cantu has career-best cross country run PHOTOS BY BILL POEHLER | STATESMAN JOURNAL Kennedy junior Kaylin Cantu placed third at the OSAA 3A/2A/1A state cross country meet at Lane Community College on Saturday, Nov. 5. BILL POEHLER STATESMAN JOURNAL In the 3A/2A/1A state cross country meet at Lane Community College, Kaylin Cantu continued her ascent of the state meet standings. The junior from Ken- nedy placed third in the meet in 19:09, improving on her previous finishes of seventh and 10th at the state meet. Stephanie Finley of Oregon Episcopal won in 18:30 and Bandon’s Sailor Hutton was second in 18:36. But those two took off so fast and Cantu knew she couldn’t hang with them so she raced for third the whole time. “I really wanted to stay with Maya (Rayle) from Catlin Gabel and just see what she did,” Cantu said of the girl she beat for third. “And then I don’t want to go out too hard be- cause I don’t really have a good finish, a good kick so I just wanted to pace my- self and make sure I had a good finish.” Kennedy sophomore Alejandra Lopez poured it on in the final mile to move up to fifth from eighth and finish in 19:31. The Kennedy team of Cantu, Lopez, Azaris Ve- lazquez, Natividad Ortiz and Clarissa Traeger earned a fourth place tro- phy with 150 points. Also in the meet, Ken- nedy boys placed 13th led by Noe Jines’ 35th place finish. L Kennedy’s Alejandra Lopez (right) placed fifth at the OSAA Class 3A/2A/1A state cross country meet on Saturday, Nov. 5.