Districts, and on to State!

Silverton cross country showed up to the District meet on Wednesday ready to roll.

Girl's Varsity Race
Maddie Fuhrman from Silverton ran a dominant race, extending her lead from the first mile and just adding to the gap with ever mile that ticked by. Maddie ended up running an 18:38 (compared to her 18:05 PR at Sandelie) and was able to secure the new school record from Morgan Anderson that was clocked at 18:54 on the State course back in 2011. Corvallis was able to win overall for Girl's and was followed up by Lebanon and Crescent Valley (56, 66, and 67 respectively). Central high school missed the berth to state by a mere four points.

Boy's Varsity Race
On the Boy's side, the race was very fast paced. The first mile was clocked around a controlled 5:00 for the leaders and was led by Marcus Corbett and Gustavo Lopez. Trailing behind were Sam Roth and Gavin Bomber, two who would eventually end up battling in the last 400 where Gavin would secure the district title. Corvallis managed to secure another district title, with Silverton and Crescent Valley taking second and third respectively.

Since William (my Sophomore brother) was running in the Varsity race, it was exciting to see how it played out. Unfortunately, Silverton was ranked 1st but wasn't able to compete with Corvallis in scoring as low as they did. However, the Mid-Willamette Conference (being one of the bigger conferences) allows the top 7 individuals to qualify for State and the next three teams. This allowed the boys team to qualify for State two years in a row, a feat that hasn't been matched for over two decades.

This Saturday at Lane Community College, Silverton will try to push out Corvallis on the State course. Sure, Silverton has a very consistent team, but Districts showed us that Silverton doesn't have the experience it needs to compete at a larger level. State will be interesting to see; Corvallis has been here pretty much every year for as long as I can remember. Silverton can make the podium if they run smart and pick people off, and it's up to these boys to decide their fate.

Boys posing in front of the Foxes Flag.