Summit girls take cross-country title

Storm win fourth straight Class 5A state championship in Eugene

By Beau Eastes / The Bulletin

EUGENE — Only the Summit girls could make the state cross-country championships look like an intrasquad jog in the park.

The Storm won their fourth consecutive Class 5A girls state title Saturday in a race for the history books. Summit runners Megan Fristoe, Ashley Maton, Piper McDonald and Sara Fristoe swept the top four spots at the wet and chilly state meet at Lane Community College and the Storm scored 16 points. That mark tied the all-time state record for any classification, set by Crater’s 5A girls team in 2007. Summit’s fifth and final scoring runner, Kira Kelly, placed seventh.

Bend High finished second overall in the standings with 101 points, and Marist, a private school from Eugene, took third with 103.

“I’m just ecstatic,” said Storm coach Dave Clark, whose boys team also won the 5A state championship. “We knew a perfect score (of 15 points) was a possibility, but so much of it depends on what other teams do.

“If we run like this next week at regionals, there’s no way we won’t make the national meet.”

While the state meet is usually the end of competition for most teams, Summit, which has been nationally ranked by several publications for most of this season, will run at the Nike Cross Northwest Regional Championship on Saturday in Boise, Idaho, with the hope of landing one of two berths to the Nike Cross Nationals in Portland on Dec. 3.

“State’s always been a part of the puzzle,” said Sara Fristoe, who passed Milwaukie’s Shannon Susbauer during the final 300 meters of the 5,000-meter race to place fourth. “And qualifying for nationals will bring the whole puzzle together.”

Megan Fristoe, Sara’s twin sister, won her third consecutive 5A title Saturday, posting a time of 18 minutes, 7 seconds — the fastest mark of any girl regardless of classification. She was never seriously challenged, beating Maton (18:30) and McDonald (18:36) by more than 20 seconds.

“That was the goal, for us to win both boys and girls individual titles and both team titles,” said Megan Fristoe, referring to teammate Travis Neuman, who claimed the 5A boys state championship. “Now the goal is to win a regional title and qualify for nationals.”

Lost a bit in Summit’s run into the record books was the Lava Bears’ runner-up finish to the Storm. Bend’s second-place effort marked the program’s best finish since the Bears won the old Class 4A state title in 1995. Jenna Mattox paced Bend with a ninth-place finish while Melissa Hubler, Hannah Anderson and Jessica Wolfe placed 24th, 25th and 29th, respectively. Makeila Lundy finished 41st to round out the top five for the Lava Bears.

“This means so much more than any individual place,” said Mattox, who last year came in third at state and in 2009 finished fifth. “Last year my team didn’t get to go to state, but I did because of my team. I’m just so glad they could experience this.”

In the Class 4A state meet, Sisters High came within six points of winning its first cross-country state title, finishing third with 88 points. Scappoose won the race with 82 points, besting runner-up Klamath Union (83 points) and the Outlaws in the closest race of the day.

Despite battling the flu, sophomore Zoe Falk led Sisters with a ninth-place finish in 20:08. Freshmen Madison Boettner (11th, 20:13) and Aria Blumm (13th, 20:18) also posted top-15 finishes for the Outlaws.

“We gave ’em a run for their money,” Sisters coach Charlie Kanzig said about his girls squad. “No one saw us coming. Everyone expected Klamath Union to run away with (state).”

Klamath Union junior Alisha Luna won the 4A girls individual title going away — her time of 18:32 was 25 seconds faster than runner-up Sierra Brown of Hidden Valley — but Scappoose’s No. 4 and No. 5 runners fared slightly better than their Klamath Union counterparts to give the Indians their first state title.

Crook County also ran in the 4A girls race, taking ninth of 12 teams. Senior Kelley Thurman finished 31st (20:58) to pace the Cowgirls.

Tefna Mitchell-Hoegh took 53rd in the Class 6A girls race to provide Redmond with its best girls finish of the day. The Panthers placed 12th as a team.

— Reporter: 541-383-0305; beastes@bendbulletin.com.