Jesuit keeps rolling, while Crater pulls a surprise

Jesuit's Annamarie Maag won her third state title Saturday.

Photo by Cliff Pfenning, oregonsports.com

EUGENE - The running machine that is the Jesuit girls cross country team did the expected Saturday, both in the Class 6A individual and team races.

Crater High pulled off something of an upset in the Class 6A boys race at the OSAA/U.S. Bank/Les Schwab Tires championships.

Behind a third-straight title by Annamarie Maag and two other top-7 finishers, the Crusaders won their ninth consecutive girls title with a 48-76 edge over second-place South Eugene.

Then the Comets took over the 5,000-meter course at Lane Community College in their bright orange uniforms.

Crater, last year's champion at Class 5A, moved up to Class 6A in the summer during the statewide reorganization of districts and appeared as a longshot to unseat perennial contender Central Catholic.

Central Catholic, last year's Class 6A champion, had four of the top 14 finishers in the team scoring, led by second-place finisher Andy Bennion. But the Comets performed equally as well, placing four of its runners in the top 13 finishers, led by fourth-place finisher Max Runia. Crater's fifth runner was 16 spots ahead of the Rams' No. 5 finisher, which provided the difference in scoring, 59-75.

Crater's title was its fifth straight, with the other four coming at Class 5A.

The Comets are the first public school to win the large-school title since Bend in 2001. Central Catholic or Jesuit finished first the past eight years.

Among the stories that came from the meet were Ian Burgess of Portland's Franklin High winning the Class 5A final, three years after his brother Bryce won the Class 6A title.
In girls finals, Summit of Bend beat crosstown rival Mountain View in the Class 5A final, Siuslaw beat Hidden Valley for the Class 4A title, and Catlin Gabel narrowly beat Valley Catholic for the Class 3A title, 90-101.

In boys team finals, Hermiston won the Class 5A title, while Philomath won the Class 4A title.

The meet featured just one duel to the finish line - the Class 3A boys final where Chemawa senior Lucien Corriveau edged Nyssa junior Ryan Maag by .06 seconds. Maag dived at the finish, but Corriveau, a state champion in Oklahoma the past two years, earned the win, although both were officially timed in 16 minutes, 15 seconds.

Maag later celebrated with his team, which defended its state title.

In other individual finals, senior Austin Lundin of Valley Catholic won the Class 3A final by 17 seconds over Union freshman Katriel O'Reilly, Klamath Union sophomore Alisha Luna won the Class 4A final by 20 seconds, and Summit junior Megan Fristoe won the Class 5A final by 32 seconds.

Zorg Loustalet, a junior at Henley, won the Class 4A boys title by 17 seconds.