Summit's boys and girls cross-country squads win Special District 1 titles

By Elise Gross / The Bulletin

Despite fierce wind and dirt blowing around the trails, coaches and runners noted that the hard, flat course at Bend Pine Nursery Park produced fast times overall.

Summit, which hosted the five-school district meet, will advance to the Class 5A state championship meet. The Mountain View boys took second overall to earn a state berth. The top two teams from each district meet advance to the 5A state championships, which are set for next Saturday at Lane Community College in Eugene.

On the girls side, Bend High surged late in the 5,000-meter race to edge out Ashland for second place and a state bid.

“It was a nail-biter,” said Lava Bears coach Kyle Will, who noted that his girls made a charge over the last 200 meters of the race.

Summit senior Megan Fristoe captured her third straight district crown, winning with a time of 17 minutes, 39.6 seconds. Fristoe and teammate Ashley Maton led the race until Fristoe pulled away with about a mile to go, finishing 18 seconds ahead of Maton.

Freshman Piper McDonald, also of Summit, placed third after running with Fristoe and Maton for the first half of the race.

A pack of several Bend and Summit girls followed for most of the race, but Kira Kelly broke away in the last mile to place fourth for the Storm. Jenna Mattox of Bend rounded out the top five finishers.

“It was pretty impressive,” said Summit coach Dave Clark of his girls team's sweep of the top four places.

The Storm girls, who will go for their fourth consecutive 5A state title on Saturday, were one point away from achieving a perfect team score of 15 at the district meet.

Clark said he advised his girls to draft off other runners for the first part of the race without “getting complacent.”

“With 600 (meters) to go, get ready to fight,” Clark said he told his runners.

Mountain View took fourth in the girls race, finishing 12 points behind Ashland. Macaulay Wilson placed first for the Cougars, in 10th place overall.

“We ran pretty fast, but the competition was tough,” said Mountain View coach Don Stearns.

Eagle Point, the fifth school competing in the district meet, did not field a complete team in either the girls or boys races.

Junior Travis Neuman of Summit led the boys race from the beginning, and he won his second consecutive district title with a time of 15:20.4 — 34 seconds ahead of second-place finisher and teammate Eric Alldritt.

“I tried to go off of feel,” said Neuman of his race, adding that he is gearing up for the state meet, where he finished second last year.

The Storm also placed first through fourth on the boys side, with Luke Hinz and Matthew Maton finishing third and fourth, respectively. Summit finished three points shy of a perfect score.

Mountain View's Jake McDonald led Mountain View to a state berth by finishing fifth overall. Riley Anheluk, McDonald's teammate, was close behind in sixth place. The Cougars also claimed ninth through 11th places to help lock in their second-place team finish.

“The boys tried to keep it together in a pack for the first mile, then they started racing,” Stearns said of his team's race strategy.

Ashland finished third as a team, and Bend followed in fourth place. Daniel Ewing led the Lava Bears, finishing 18th overall.

Will said he was “thrilled” with his boys team's performance, especially because the top six all ran under 18 minutes.

No individual finishers qualified for the state meet, since the first five runners in both the boys and girls races had already qualified as part of a team.

— Reporter: 541-383-0305, egross@bendbulletin.com