Lincoln's girls cross country team, coming off its first state championship in 46 years, started the season with a bang Friday in the Night Meet at Wilsonville High School.
Junior Ellery Lincoln and senior Elyse Henriksen won their class races on the 3,000-meter course. Julia Olivares placed seventh in the sophomore race and Gwyn Fairchild and Matilda Hof took fifth and sixth, respectively, in the freshman race.
Lincoln, the 6A runner-up as a freshman and third at state last year, finished in 9 minutes, 48.1 seconds to break the meet record of 9:57.0, set by Grant's Ella Donaghu as a sophomore in 2013.
“Ellery went in with the hope of potentially giving the meet record a run for its money, and she was able to get that, which was exciting,” Cardinals coach Eric Dettman said of Lincoln, who won the 1,500 in the 6A track meet as a freshman.
Lincoln spent much of the race dueling with Crater's Brynn Davenport. The pair ran the first mile at 5:24 and carried a 5:10 pace through into second mile. Lincoln made the decisive move with about 150 meters left and held off Davenport (9:53.8), who also ran faster than Donaghu's record.
“They were flying. It was fun to watch,” Dettman said.
Lincoln is looking to progress from a sophomore year in which she was plagued by illness. She has been making steady progress since the Cardinals reconvened for a team camp in late July.
“She's relatively fresh getting into fitness, but clearly, she's already at a pretty high level,” Dettman said. “I think she's in line to do some cool stuff this year. We're really trying to take it week by week.”
Henriksen won her class race at the Night Meet for the second year in a row. North Salem's Nelida Dalgas, the 6A runner-up last year, led for much of the race, with Henriksen and Sunset's Elissa Schaeffer in tow. But Henriksen took control late and won in 10:09.85, beating Schaeffer (10:14.87) and Dalgas (10:17.28).
“There was a point in that race that we knew Elyse was going to take off, similar to what she did last year,” Dettman said. “Having won the race last year, Elyse was hoping to come back and cap off her senior year with another one.”
Lincoln and Henriksen were the Cardinals' top two finishers in the 6A meet last year, taking third and seventh, respectively. With their other scorers graduated, the team is sorting out its lineup.
“We're super young. We have six freshmen that we're really excited about,” Dettman said. “We've had a couple sophomores who have taken a big jump. We'll be good, but it will take a little bit of time. There are a lot of really talented girls.”
Dettman admitted to being surprised that the Cardinals landed as high as No. 2 in the OSAAtoday 6A preseason coaches poll, behind West Salem.
“My response was, I want to know what these people know about my team that I don't,” Dettman said. “I ranked West Salem first based on who they have coming back.”
Dettman said Lincoln coaches haven't been talking with the girls about defending their state title, but they are hopeful to contend.
“We think we can be in that conversation,” he said.
Add Night Meet
Sheldon senior Malachi Schoenherr, the reigning 6A champion, set a meet record at the Night Meet. He won the senior race in 8:34.51, beating the previous record of 8:39.7, set by Sherwood's Jeffery Rogers in 2021.
Warrenton's Jayden Warner also beat the meet record in finishing second to Schoenherr in the senior race, clocking 8:39.67. Warner took more than one minute off his time at last year's meet (9:46.1).
The other class winners were Crater freshman Ryder White (9:04.07), Crater sophomore Garrett Faught (8:50.89) and Tigard junior Paul Hretcanu (8:47.82).
In the girls races, Sherwood freshman Nezeya Bugher (10:58.36) and West Linn sophomore Eleanor Wyatt (10:23.00) posted wins.
The Opener
Banks senior Sophie Schoolmeester broke her own meet record in winning The Opener on Friday at Ash Creek Preserve in Monmouth.
Schoolmeester finished the 3,000-meter course in 10:01.1, shattering the mark of 10:32.61 she established last year. North Eugene senior Cricket Phipps was a close second in 10:04.4.
In the boys race, North Eugene junior Ashenafi McKinnis finshed in 8:25.6 to turn back Central senior Ty Cirino (8:34.8). McKinnis broke the meet record of 8:30.49 that Cirino set a year ago.
Corvallis scored 122 points to beat McMinnville (126) and Lakeridge (128) for first place out of 29 boys teams. Banks outscored Corvallis 58-89 to win the 18-team girls race.
jerryu@osaa.org
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