A final tuneup for Clatsop County runners

Astoria, Seaside and Warrenton cross country teams had one more tuneup before their respective District Meets. After setting personal records at Fort Stevens, the athletes traveled to Tillamook for The Bigfoot Classic at Alderbrook Golf Course on Oct. 21.

Astoria finishes in top three

Astoria finished top three in every team category they participated in at Alderbrook.

The high school boys finished third behind Neah-Kah-Nie and Molalla, the high school girls finished second behind Molalla and the middle school boys finished second behind home team Tillamook.

Freshman Grady Tillotson led home the Fishermen boys with another personal best time in the 5,000 meters. Tillotson clocked a 17:13.9 to finish seventh overall. For reference, the best time that state champion Will Laman ran his freshmen year was 17:51.9, so Tillotson is off to a good start as the next torch bearer for Astoria boys distance running. Dylan Sigman of Neah-Kah-Nie was the boys winner in a time of 16:18.8.

The other four scorers for Astoria were Turner Boslar, Recker Harvey, Braedon Long and Cameron Hano. Boslar crossed the line in 16th place with a time of 17:47.9, Harvey finished 22nd while stopping the clock at 18:27.7, Long clocked a 19:03.2 while finishing 32nd and Hano finished 29th in a time of 19:18.3.

In total the Fishermen scored 110 points, while Neah-Kah-Nie won the meet with 39 points. Molalla finished a close second with 42 points.

The Astoria girls scored a total of 83 points, to finish second behind Molalla, who had 65.

Ila Canessa led the way for the girls in a time of 22:59.3 and a 13th-place finish. Fellow freshmen Mavis Allen finished 16th with a time of 23:19.0, Jocelyn Heilman was close behind with a 17th place finish. Heilman clocked a 30 second personal record as she crossed the line in a time of 23:22.6. Kysa Whitsett and Addison Earl were the fourth and fifth scorers for the Lady Fishermen. Whitsett finished 22nd in a time of 23:47.8 and was 27th in a time of 24:31.4. Freshman Lucy Palenske ran her second consecutive personal best time as she crossed the line in 35th place with a time of 24:40.01. This was a massive improvement on her previous best time of 25:44.05 that she ran at The Fishermen 5K on Oct. 17.

The Astoria boys middle school team also had a strong day. The Fishermen had eighth grader Ethan Monroy Perez take home first place honors in the 3000 meters. Perez ran a personal record of 10:30.0 to win the boys middle school race by 5 seconds over Soren Toulouse Kelly of Tillamook.

Monroy Perez was joined in the scoring by eighth grader Rowan Ross, eighth grader Ian Teeter, seventh grader Huck Randall and eighth grader Steven McSwain. The foursome were joined by seventh grader Harvey Kohlhas in the personal best department. Also, the five runners finished 11th through 15th to help Astoria take second place.

Tillamook middle school won first place with 32 points and Astoria middle school scored 51.

Seaside middle school girls carry the day

Seaside middle school girls showed that the future is strong for Seagulls cross country as they took home first place honors in the girls 2,500 meter middle school race.

Eighth grader Lily Foster was followed home by sixth graders Keira Mallory, Sylvia Hamilton, Laine Rigby, Brightly Ford and Campbell McCarthy. These six runners all occupied the first 12 spots in the finishing lineup with Foster, Mallory, Hamilton, Rigby and Ford finishing as the five scorers in the top 10.

Foster finished second overall behind Tillamook seventh grader Shiloh Werner. Werner took home first place in a time of 9:48.7. Foster set a personal record 10:01.4, Mallory finished third in a personal record of 10:16.4, Hamilton was fifth in a time of 10:19.1, Rigby crossed the line in ninth place and ran a time of 10:29 and Ford was the fifth scorer in 10th with a personal record of 10:32.8. McCarthy also clocked a personal best with a 10:42.5. In fact, every Seagulls runner clocked a personal record during the Oct. 21 meet.

The Seagulls finished with a team score of 22 points, which was seven points off of a perfect score of 15.

At the high school level the Seaside boys came home in seventh place.

Kyle and Garrett Weichal once again led home the Seagulls contingent. Kyle finished 17th in a time of 17:57 and Garrett finished 25th, while stopping the clock at 18:34. Kaden Bingham, Dexter Jenks and Dane Benedict were the next three finishers. Bingham finished 49th in a time of 19:59, Jenks stopped the clock in 20:52.1 and Benedict finished 74th in 21:22.3. In the team score category Seaside finished with 204 points.

On the girls side Lexie Dickau has established herself as the Seagulls top runner.

She once again led home the Lady Gulls with a 19th-place finish. Dickau ran a 23:27.4 over the 5,000 meter course. Grace Walker, Ella Crater, Juliette Jenks and Kimberly Martinez-Luna were the other scorers for Seaside as they finished 53rd, 55th, 57th and 59th respectively. Walker clocked a season best of 27:35.6 and Jenks ran a personal record of 28:01.8

The Lady Gulls also scored 204 points and finished 10th out of 10 teams.

Senior leads home Warrenton

James Hallock led home the Warrenton boys at The Bigfoot Classic finishing in 26th place. Hallock stopped the clock in the 5,000 meters with a time of 18:43.7.

He was joined in the scoring by Jacob Stevens, Austin Peck, Kyle Esposito and Walter McCormick. Stevens finished 43rd, Peck was 65th, Esposito was 81st and McCormick was 121.

The Warriors finished 11th out of 13 teams with a score of 269 points.