A 'Normal' Cross Country Season Is Taking Flight Across The Country, And In Oregon It Took Off At The Ash Creek Invitational

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

High school cross country returned in a full scale way Saturday in Oregon at the Ash Creek Cross Country Festival in Monmouth. 

On warm, sunny day the 2021 season came to life with a big-meet feeling that was non-existent in 2020. More than 1,400 athletes competed in the meet on the campus of Western Oregon University. 

Athletes such as Caleb Lakeman of Tualatin used the opportunity to show how much work he put into his summer training and was rewarded with a course record 14:58.5. 

PHOTOS by Kim Spir | INTERVIEWS | RESULTS

Coaches like Kari Strang of Summit actually got to give pre-race instructions to her athletes on a cross country course for a significant meet for the first time since she was hired 19 months ago. 

"It was aweseome," Strang said. "So happy to be back in normal cross country and to have such great competition and see the kids out here doing what they love."

Summit got the chance to race Jesuit, it's biggest in-state rival, for the first time since the end of 2019. The Storm, ranked No. 1 in the Northwest, rallied late to win 43-47 as the two schools provided eight of the 14 total that ran faster than 19 miutes on the 5,000-meter course. 

Senior Teaghan Knox, who was a key member of the 2018 national championship team and 2019 runner-up, finished third in the race and enjoyed the start of a new season -- away from the smothering smoke impacting Bend for weeks -- with new teammates. 

"With COVID, and all that's happened, (NXN) feels like a really, really long time ago," she said.

Jesuit's Chloe Foerster controlled the girls race from start to finish and broke the course record with 17:24.5. 

The Jesuit girls have also welcomed a new coach, with distinguised alum Laura Harmon joining the program in the past month after leaving a college job at Minnesota-Duluth. 

"We're all super-pumped about her," Foerster said. "We think it's really strong to have a female coach added to the team. She adds some great insights and we all get to talk with her and her (4-year-old) daughter being around adds a bunch of fun to the practices."

Jesuit's boys team, top-ranked in the Northwest, passed its first significant test and beat strong teams from Lincoln OR and Franklin OR with 40 points. Jacob Nenow (15:07.2), Gus Clevenger (15:23.6) and Caden Hildenbrand (15:26.8) all finished in the top seven. 

"It was a lot of fun," Nenow said. "We've been putting a lot of work in this summer with a lot of hard workouts and some longer tempo work and it's really paying off as we saw today.

"For some of us it was our first time running varsity, because we weren't (ready) for that two years ago."

Time moves at the same pace for every high school student across four years and when opportunities -- or entire seasons -- are lost, they don't come back. 

Lakeman's trajectory has certainly been altered by the pandemic. Two years ago, Lakeman finished 123rd at his first (and only) state cross country meet. 

He competed four times during Oregon's brief spring cross country season and won the Three Rivers League title -- but still never broke 16 minutes. 

But the son of a Oregon high school running legend -- Dirk Lakeman broke Steve Prefontaine's high school mile state record in the 1970s -- seemed destined to arrive in a big way when the timing worked out. 

On Saturday, it did. Lakeman ran up front with Nenow -- the son of former U.S. 10,000-meter record holder Mark Nenow -- and Charlie North of Franklin and Zack Munson (Sehome WA/unattached). He waited until 1,000 meters to go before sprinting away for the win. 

"I'm really ecstatic," Lakeman said. "I wanted to show everyone how fit I was. I've been working so hard over the summer."

It was also a good showing for Lincoln High. The boys team, led by Aiden Smith, scored 77 points. The girls team, which held out the Nos. 2 and 3 runners, finished fourth as Kendall York ran impressively to second with 17:50.6. 

Next week, coach Eric Dettman will take his team on a pilgrimmage back to his roots in Illinois and York High. Dettman will take his athletes through Elmhurst to see the legendary running school and then competed at the Richard Spring Invitational at Detweiller Park in Peoria. 

In the effort to get back to a normal experience, Dettman is pushing the envelope to create an extraordinary experience. 

"When I started coaching at Lincoln nine years ago, I had three goals -- one was win a state title, one was get a team to NXN and one was take a team to Detweiller. That place holds such a special place in my heart. 

"It will be really special to share that moment with those kids."