The Pendleton boys cross country team won the Greater Oregon League district title Oct. 30, in Baker City. It is the first district title for the Bucks in more than 40 years.
By ANNIE FOWLER, The CUJ
BAKER CITY — Pendleton had five runners finish in the top 12 to win the Greater Oregon League district cross country title Wednesday at Baker City Golf Course.
It’s the first district title for the Pendleton boys team in more than 40 years.
“It has been a day,” Pendleton boys coach Tony Nelson said. “I am pretty happy for those boys, they ran their hearts out today. It was fun to watch. They’ve been running hard all season long. They wanted to make some noise and they circled today on the calendar. They put it all together today. They all knew how long it had been. They were ecstatic, jumping around and screaming. Emotions got to them. They were super proud of themselves.”
The victory sends the entire Pendleton team to the 4A state championships Nov. 9, at Lane Community College in Eugene.
The Bucks won the title with 39 points, while La Grande was second (45), Baker third (46) and Ontario fourth (96).
Jack Reynolds led the Bucks, placing second with a time of 17:51.05, while Autry Robinson was seventh with an 18:31.08. Khoda Brown was eighth (18:33.55), Maliki Adams was 10th (19:17.82), and Eric Baisley was 12th (19:30.54).
“We met our goal of winning district,” said Reynolds, who is headed to state for the third time. “Everyone ran super good. It was my best time on that course by like 30 seconds. It has a lot of hills.”
Reynolds said he led the first 2 miles of the race, but that the wind finally got to him.
“It was like 40 degrees and a 40 mile an hour wind,” Nelson said. “It was brutal.”
La Grande’s Josef Simonis won the race with a time of 17:31.87. He will be joined at state by Kaden May (4th, 18:07.29), Huntyn Azure (9th, 19:07.75), Dane Fine (15th, 20:04.23), and Jonathan Gisi (16th, 20:19.13).
In the girls division, La Grande’s Brooke Perry won the race in a time of 19:11.12. She has won six of the seven races she has entered this fall.
Baker won the team title with 31 points, while La Grande was second with 41, and Pendleton third with 52.
Joining Perry at state will be Cecilia Villagomez Edvalson (2nd, 19:56.89), Ella Lees (10th, 23:35.13), Kimber Kretschmer (12th, 23:48.83), and Kylie Jones (16th, 24:43.82).
The Pendleton girls will send two runners to state — freshman Ella Pozar and senior Melissa Tune.
Pozar finished sixth overall with a time of 22:17.68, while Tune was seventh, clocking a 22:25.56.
Also scoring points for the Bucks were Madelyn Lieuallen (9th, 23:22.38), Evelyn Hayes (13th, 23:57.48), and Ella Holtz (17th, 24:44.70).
