EUGENE — Sheldon junior Malachi Schoenherr has made a habit of coming up big at the biggest time.
After taking the 3,000-meter title at the state track and field meet in the spring, he won the best individual race of the day Saturday in the OSAA/OnPoint Community Credit Union Cross Country Championships.
Schoenherr won the 5,000-meter race in 15 minutes and 4 seconds, out-sprinting Forest Grove’s Sawyer Marquis (15:05) and Franklin’s Brennan McEwen (15:07) to win the 6A title in the final race of a busy day at Lane Community College.
“It’s still unreal,” Schoenherr said after the race.
Two miles into the race, there still was a big group in the lead back, but it started to dwindle until it was just Schoenherr, Marquis and McEwen together when they hit the track 300 meters from the finish.
“I passed Brennan and Sawyer and thought I went too early,” Schoenherr said. “As soon as Brennan caught up to me, I got another burst of energy.”
And he fed off the crowd.
“This environment is just incredible,” Schoenherr said. “The best part is running by the crowds.”
While Schoenherr won the individual title, Jesuit returned to the top of the team race after finishing second to Franklin last fall.
Kellen Williams was fourth, Matthew Wrobewski eighth and Jackson Welsh 11th to lead the Crusaders, who finished with 52 points, to 100 for Central Catholic, 128 for Ida B. Wells and 181 for Lincoln. Brayden Fletcher was 17th and Loland Fleming 29th for Jesuit.
“After losing (last year), I think winning is that much better,” said Williams. “We were really driven to train hard last winter and summer.”
“After last year, it kind of lit a spark in all of us,” Fleming added. “We kept positive and kept putting the work in.”
5A Boys
It was business as usual for Crater’s boys, as the Comets won another team title and Tayvon Kitchen repeated as individual champion.
Kitchen pulled away from Summit’s Hayden Boaz late to win in 14:43, about six seconds off former teammate Tyrone Gorze's course record. The Comets as a team scored 46 points to finish ahead of Summit (74). Corvallis (99) and Hood River Valley (175) took the other two trophies.
“I think we had good showings from a lot of guys,” Kitchen said. “I’m happy for the team. Winning state is no easy task. It’s something to focus on.”
Josiah Tostenson, who has been battling an illness, was sixth for the Comets, with Ivan Hokanson 10th, Garrett Faught 15th and Grant Headley 19th.
Kitchen had his eyes on Gorze’s record, but came up a little short.
“Hayden was great,” Kitchen said of Boaz. “It’s nice when you have another guy to help.
“I think I would have got it — or Hayden or Josiah — if Josiah had been feeling well.”
Last fall, Tostenson finished second behind Kitchen, though their times were more than 40 seconds slower.
“I’m happy with it,” Kitchen said of Saturday’s winning effort.
Mason Morical of Caldera was third (15:16), Ty Cirano of Central fourth (15:16) and Liam Wilde of Wilsonville fifth in the same time as Tostenson (15:27). Logan King was seventh for Hood River Valley (15:32).
4A Boys
Cottage Grove’s Carter Bengtson and the Newport squad repeated as champions.
Bengtson charged to the front and crossed the line in 15:41, 17 seconds ahead of Marist Catholic’s Conor Thompson, though he wasn’t thrilled after the race.
“I genuinely hate this course,” Bengtson said. “No matter how much I prep myself up in the morning, the hills still kill me every time.”
When pointed out that he had just won his second title, he added “Maybe it’s OK.”
Bengtson hoped for a faster time, ideally the course record of Marshfield’s Alex Garcia-Silva (15:22), but said he was pleased to win.
“The goal was placement,” he said. “The place is what matters.”
Newport, meanwhile, overcame the loss to injury of team leader Finn Collson before the district meet to win its second straight title with 85 points. The Dalles had 93 and Crook County 104. Cottage Grove was fourth with 139, just ahead of Molalla (141).
“Going in, we believed in ourselves,” said Noah Larsen, who was sixth overall for the Cubs. “We knew we could do it.
“The last week, we’ve been coming together more. It’s just that great team chemistry.”
Connor Brown, who led Newport and finished fourth overall, said the team fed off each other, including he and Larsen.
“We were pulling each other along on a string,” Brown said.
Avery Chandler was 20th, David Albavera 27th and Gabriel Flores 41st for the Cubs.
The Dalles was led by Trey Hodges in ninth, Caleb Caldwell in 11th and Tyson Long in 12th. Crook County was the first with all five runners across the line, led by seventh-place finisher Adam Radabaugh, but couldn’t match Newport’s depth.
Marist Catholic’s Corbin Sage was third overall (16:16), followed by Newport’s Brown and Philomath’s Leo Pausch (both in 16:19).
3A Boys
Banks used its team-first attitude to capture its first state title, edging rival Valley Catholic in a team race decided by each squad’s sixth runner.
Both teams had 79 points, but the sixth runner for the Braves, Douglas McConnell, finished three spots in front of Valley Catholic’s sixth, Elijah Schaal. McConnell was 41st and Schaal 44th.
“We always say team first,” said Amin Diani, who finished fifth to lead Banks. “We don’t run for ourselves. We run for the team.
“It was a whole team effort.”
“We worked so hard this summer,” added Alejandro Abnal, who was sixth.
Omar Diani, Amin Diani’s twin brother, was 11th, Hudson Evers 31st and Max Bair 39th. The hero turned out to be McConnell, which his teammates said was appropriate.
“He’s a hard worker,” Abnal said. “His energy is the best. He’s always positive. I think he PRed every meet.”
Benjamin Hoffman was ninth to lead Valley Catholic, with Peter Davis 12th, Everett Brown 15th and Harlen Sampson 21st. Emmett Rohrer finished ahead of Banks’ fifth runner in 35th, but it turned out to be the sixth-place finishers for each team who mattered most.
Siuslaw finished third with 87 points, led by individual champion Clayton Wilson, who out-sprinted Jett Leavitt of Enterprise-Joseph-Wallowa. Oregon Episcopal scored 125, led by fourth-place finisher Ronan Gantzos, and was fourth in the team race.
Wilson won a pair of state titles on the track for Reedsport last spring before transferring to Siuslaw for his senior year.
“I feel like I’m a lot faster, a lot more confident,” he said, adding that the confidence helped him win the sprint against Leavitt after the two hit the track side-by-side. “The last mile, I bumped up the pace. I knew he didn’t have a sprint left (for the track).
Wilson finished in 15:37 and Leavitt finished in 15:41. Santiam Christian’s Diego Zambrano was third (15:59) and Gantzos fourth (16:00).
Siuslaw was expected to be close to Banks and Valley Catholic, with a squad that includes four freshmen with bright futures, including seventh-place finisher Henry Stone.
“They are going to be amazing,” said Wilson, the team’s only senior. “We didn’t get it this year. They will next year.”
2A-1A Boys
Curtiss Heier of Illinois Valley led from the start in the first race of the day, crossing the line in 16:31. He finished four seconds in front of Knappa’s Wyatt Jacobson.
As had been the case each of the past two years, the combined Union-Cove squad and Knappa were in a tight battle for the team championship. Just like last year, Union-Cove edged the Loggers by three points, 41-44 this time, by placing three runners on the podium. Nathanael O’Reilly was third (16:46), Mason Ritter fourth (16:47) and Ian Garlitz seventh (16:51).
Knappa had Joshua Peterson in eighth (16:56) and Oskar Peitsch in 11th (17:16), but couldn’t overcome Union-Cove’s top-heavy finish.
Bandon was third in the team race, led by sixth-place finisher Beckett Pahls, and the combined Stanfield-Echo squad edged Southwest Christian by one point for fourth, led by 10th-place finisher Pablo Galindo.
Heier had been gunning for the individual title all year after finishing sixth as a junior last fall.
“I don’t even know what to say — I’m speechless,” he said. “I’m excited. The stress is gone. The anxiety is gone. I did it.”
He usually doesn’t try to run from the front, but decided that was the best plan Saturday.
“I knew where I wanted to be,” he said. “I stayed where I wanted to be.”
In the team race, the Bobcats did exactly what they wanted.
“Our goal was to put three in front of Knappa’s second guy,” O’Reilly said. “We did.”
The squad might more appropriately be called Cove-Union, since five of the seven varsity runners are from Cove. Ritter and Bryce Burton are the team’s two Union runners, with William Mallory, Gavin Pedro and David McDonald also from Cove.
