2B | WEDNESDAY, APRIL 14, 2020 | SIUSLAW NEWS
Champs
from 1B
meet, Saturday’s state meet
was held at Marist High
School — raising some con-
cern that the competition
wouldn’t feel like a state-lev-
el championship meet.
Not so, said Johnson.
“This is the 26th state
meet I've been to as a coach,”
he said, “and I was at three
as an athlete — and it felt
exactly the same as any
other state meet. And I
know the kids felt the same
way. So, we feel like we're
just really fortunate, and it
was a group effort.”
According to Johnson, it
took the cooperation of
many to make the event
work, with coaches and
individuals from several
schools putting their heads
together.
“We made some adjust-
ments, made sure was actu-
ally the right distance and
did some cosmetic things to
it so it felt more like a cham-
pionship-caliber
meet,”
Johnson said. “All in all, I
think it was it was great, it
was a good course.”
The event was quite suc-
cessful, and the efforts put
in by Johnson and the other
schools involved were much
appreciated by athletes and
spectators alike.
“Kids like to finish on the
track in front of a bunch of
people,” said Johnson. “So, it
had a great feel. The coaches
and athletes were super
Fishing
from 1B
Alsea. The recent rain
improved the conditions
and the fishing picked up a
bit. Overall, it continues to
be slow and the run is
winding down for the year
excited and thankful to be
there. I've never received
more people coming to me,
thanking me — coaches,
athletes and parents — for
helping put this thing
together. So, that was really
neat.”
As far as the race, the
teams’ results speak vol-
umes.
The girls finished with 81
points, coming out ahead of
Sisters with 87, Baker with
89, and La Grande with 117.
Siuslaw junior Rylee Colton
finished fifth individually
(19:34.7) and the only Lady
Viking to finish in the top
10. Seniors Brea Blankenship
and Gracie Freudenthal
each finished in the top 20,
in 13th (20:23.5) and 16th
(20:43.1), respectively.
Johnson also discussed
how impressive the perfor-
mance was of the two fresh-
men on his girls team.
“I had four freshmen
run,” said Johnson. “That's
the first time that those four
kids have ever run in a cross
country race at the high
school level with more than
40 people in their whole
race. So, it was a totally dif-
ferent deal to have that
dropped on [them], and the
way those freshmen per-
formed was just incredible.”
Jane Lacouture (21:26.8)
and Corduroy Holbrook
(21:51.5) had the added
pressure of knowing that
there were only five girls,
explained Johnson. “And if
you don't have five girls fin-
ish in a cross country meet,
you're incomplete and you
don't have a team score —
so those five girls had that
pressure on them all year
long. Those are two pretty
special kids for them to be
able to withstand that pres-
sure and then perform at the
level that they did speaks
volumes about their tough-
ness.”
Johnson added that every
single girl on the team had
their best race of the year.
“Rylee really lead the way
for us, but I really think Jane
and Gracie did a lot of great
work the last mile to help us
catch Marist and stay ahead
of Baker,” he said.
With respect to the boys
team, Siuslaw came in first
with 70 points, followed by
Philomath with 77, Sisters
with 81 and Hidden Valley
with 96. The boys had two
runners finish in the top 10;
Chad Hughes came in
eighth with a time of 16:19.4,
and Samuel Ulrich came
finished ninth at 16:23.4.
Coming in among the top
20 were Kyle Hughes in 15th
(16:48.5) and Jaxson Jensen
in 19th (16:59.7). Securing
the win for the team to fin-
ish fifth for Siuslaw was
Brayden Linton (17:24.4).
Also finishing for the
Vikings were Dylan Jensen
(17:45.2)
and
Jacob
Blankenship (18:42.5).
The boys were unfortu-
nately without one of their
usual top five finishers due
to an injury.
“We were without Ryan
Jennings, which was just a
killer,” said Johnson. “Poor
kid got hurt the last week of
the season, and we tried to
kind of nurse it along — but
he just couldn't walk with-
out limping.”
Jennings has two sports
seasons left this year as a
standout in track and wres-
tling, “So, for him to run
and then not be able to run
as fast as he’d want to, and
then to risk prolonging his
injury when he can get back
— it didn't make any sense,”
Johnson said.
According to Johnson,
some encouragement and
positive reinforcement in
the middle of the race were
able to help push the run-
ners along to where they
needed to be.
“We were one point down
at the two-mile mark, and at
that point in time, other
than Chad, we had kids that
were right along with our
kids the whole way,” said
Johnson. “So, I just let them
know, ‘You’ve got to beat
those guys. If you beat those
guys, we're going to win.’
And they were able to do it.”
Johnson said Jaxson
Jensen had a great race. “By
far his best race of the year,”
said Johnson. “He passed
me at two miles and he's
right with Philomath guys,
and I said, ‘You have to beat
those two.’ And he just nod-
ded his head like ‘I got it.
I'm going to do it.’ And he
did. And what a way to fin-
as we head into April.
Although it has been a
slow year there are still fish
to be caught in the system
through the month of
March. The Alsea River
remains open to steelhead
fishing through April and
then closes on April 30.
Trout fishing in streams
opens on May 22. The later
returning wild broodstock
fish are providing the
majority of the catch now
and typically peak in
February and March.
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“I knew that Joe Fulton at
Philomath, Josh Nordell at
Sisters, Suzy Cole at Baker
and Connor Kasler at
Hidden Valley — those pro-
grams are dialed in and they
were going to be ready to
go,” he said of the competi-
tion at state.
While those teams may
have been ready to go,
Johnson’s Vikings were able
to do the work necessary to
take home the titles.
After a monumental sea-
son in cross country,
Johnson’s runners will take
to the track (and field) for
Season Three (spring), with
the opening meet set for
April 20 at Siuslaw High
School.
Events begin at 3:30 p.m.
On Siuslaw! Go Viks!
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Even with the pandemic,
this year’s group of cross
country runners seemed to
have that something special
needed to go all the way.
“We've had some good
teams and a bunch of league
championships over the last
few
years,”
admitted
Johnson, “but we really hav-
en't put together this kind of
a race at a state meet. We've
certainly run up to expecta-
tions and beyond.”
At last week’s district
meet, Johnson said he
thought there were some
teams that had a hard time
putting together [a team]
and getting people to be
consistent. That wouldn’t be
the same at state.
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