Maddie Carney struck a blow for Caldera's rising your cross country program Saturday in the Nike Portland XC Invite at Blue Lake Park in Fairview.
The sophomore edged Kylah Madariaga, a senior from Wenatchee, Wash., by 0.3 seconds for first place in the prestigious Danner Championships girls race. Carney leaned at the finish line to win a footrace in the last 150 meters, completing the 5,000-meter course in 17 minutes, 17.1 seconds.
Carney joins an elite group of Danner champions that includes her mother, Carrie Morales, who won the race for Mountain View in 1991.
It is the first win in the promising career of Carney, who placed eighth in the 5A championships as a freshman. She took 48 seconds off her previous best time of 18:05.8.
“I think it gives her a lot of confidence. It's a fast time,” Caldera coach Charlotte Richardson said. “She's so terribly young and just learning about this sport.”
Carney, a competitive cross country skier, is rising fast as a runner.
"It's really trusting in the process and the training, and just really keeping that up," Carney told the Bend Bulletin.
In the 5A track championships as a freshman, Carney finished eighth in the 3,000 and 10th in the 1,500. In her first two cross country meets this season, she was second to three-time 5A champion Emily Wisniewski of Crescent Valley in the Caldera Wolfpack XC and was runner-up to Summit junior Sophia Capozzi in the Northwest Classic.
“Over the summer, she really made a commitment to doing more miles than she's ever done before,” Richardson said. “And she also was lifting and doing some of the skiing workouts. She just came into the season very committed to running her best. She loves running and she wants to have that success.”
Richardson said that Carney did not enter the Nike Portland XC Invite with a strategy to win the race, but rather to finish in the top 10. Nearing the one-mile mark, she was among the top half-dozen runners. By the time she got to the final loop, she was in the top three with Madariaga and Cloe Ruth, a senior from Silver Creek (Colo.).
Carney and Madariaga separated for the grassy home stretch that was lined with spectators, trading the lead several times.
“It was really dramatic,” Richardson said. “I just said, 'OK, put on your amazing ferocious kick.' She's got a good kick. She's not a slouch at all.”
Capital of Boise finished first in the team scoring with 113 points. Summit edged Caldera 118-119 for second place.
Caldera, in its fourth season since the school opened, has dramatically closed the gap on crosstown rival Summit, which has won 15 consecutive state championships.
“We're super pleased to even be that close to Summit,” Richardson said. “Summit sets the standard. The three-and-a-half years we've been doing this, they've always been the ones that we've looked up to.”
Caldera returned its entire lineup from last year, when it placed fourth in the 5A meet, and added an impact freshman in Miley Morical. She is the niece of Jenna Carlson, who won the state title for Grants Pass in 1990.
At the Nike Portland XC Invite, Morical placed 19th and senior Mia Koernig landed 38th.
“The girls have really brought each other along,” Richardson said. “When we got fourth last year at the state meet, I think a light bulb went on for all of them. Kind of like, 'Whoa, maybe we can do something.'”
Nike Portland XC Invite boys
Summit senior Hayden Boaz also pulled out a narrow win in the Danner Championships. He claimed the boys title by running 14:42.4, holding off Vincent Recupero (14:43.0), a senior from Seattle's Bishop Blanchet. Central junior Ty Cirino (14:46.7) placed third.
Boaz's time is the fastest in the state this season and comes one week after he won the 6A/5A race in the Northwest Classic. He finished sixth in the 5A meet last year.
"I've just put in three years of training really hard, and progressing in my training, and just being super consistent in my training, and I think it's finally paying off now," Boaz told the Bend Bulletin.
Jesuit, led by a 10th-place finish from junior Isaac Abbott, won the team title with 82 points. Cheyenne Mountain, Colo., (137) and Summit (185) were next.
'Blank slate'
Richardson, 73, is a former Nike athlete who won the New York City Mini-Marathon in 1975 and competed in the Olympic Trials. She has been coaching for 53 years, including a 13-year stint at Lincoln (2005-18), where she also was the head track coach.
She moved to Sisters in 2018 and assisted at Bend for two years before the Caldera opportunity came open. She also is the Wolfpack's head track coach.
“It's been so much fun,” said Richardson, who also has assisted at Jesuit, St. Mary's Academy and Central Catholic. “When you start brand new, it's a blank slate.”
Caldera made gains during the track season, when the girls 4x400 relay finished first and Dane Giessler, now a senior, claimed the 800 title in the 5A championships.
“You're just starting to see the benefits of the team culture that we're building over here,” Richardson said.
Champs Invite
East Linn Christian senior Daisy Lalonde picked up her fourth consecutive win by taking the Champs Invite on Friday at Cheadle Lake Park in Lebanon.
Lalonde finished in 18:28.7 to win the meet for the third year in a row. She beat Coquille freshman Ella Henthorn (18:47.3) and Western Christian junior Kalkidan Ellis (19:23.7).
Lalonde, the 3A/2A/1A champion in 2022 and runner-up in 2023, has the top time in 3A/2A/1A this season, clocking 17:42.0 in winning the Northwest Classic.
Santiam Christian junior Diego Zambrano won the boys race in 16:08.1, comfortably ahead of Neah-Kah-Nie sophomore Gus Kirby (16:23.5) and Banks junior Alejando Abnal (16:28.5).
Siuslaw finished first in the 19-team girls meet, scoring 104 points to beat Central Linn (127) and Coquille (132). In the 28-team boys race, Banks (65), Valley Catholic (87) and Siuslaw (105) placed at the top.
