Cross Country @ City Beach and Seaside

The Oak Harbor Cross Country team held their only home meet of the year Thursday afternoon at Oak Harbor's City Beach park. Visiting were squads from 4A schools Cascade, Monroe and Kamiak.

The races started with the boys JV, and Oak Harbor dominated, capturing the first 8 places. Those first eight OH runners were Stephen Miller (16:53), Isaac Matthews, Adriel Eckart, Clayton Richardson, freshman Joel Erickson, Alex Krantz, and Nathan Wagner. Also in the race were Brendan Bristow, Gunnar Melnick, Ryuta Meany, Stacy Jappert and Alex Berry.

In the boys varsity race, Kamiak captured 3 of the top 7 places to win the met with 25 points. Oak Harbor finished 3rd with 65 points. First for the Wildcats was Matt Reith in 8th place and a time of 15:29. Freshman John Rodeheffer was just 3 seconds behind in 9th overall. Also earning points for the Wildcats were Josh Schrum in 10th, John Kaltenbach in 14th and Esai Cunningham in 27th overall. Freshman Dakota Powers finished 29th, Thomas Honeycutt 31st, Chris Opdyke 34th and Caley Powers 35th.

81 photos of the boys JV and varsity at City Beach are posted HERE.

Oak Harbor's Christina Wicker and Monroe's Megan Bull ran neck and neck for most of the 4,500 meter race, but Bull pulled off the win at the end, finishing in 17:21. Wicker finished in 17:27 for second place. Alex Laiblin, Hannah Bressler, Heather Dale and Taylor Von Grey rounded out the top 5 OH finishers, earning the Wildcats a first place team finish with 36 points. Kamiak was second with 43. Other OH runners were Jonalynn Horn, Ashley Everett, Mackenzie Jackson, Rachel Crowther, Carlie Kenny, Emily Bain, Nikki Blanchard, Emily Saar, Sophie Rath, Grace Pauley and Alexa Holmly.

Click HERE for 77 photos of the girls at City Beach.

The next day, both the boys and girls both left for Seaside, Oregon for the annual 3-course challenge. Laid out there is a 4,500 meter easy course, a 5,000 meter moderate course and a 5k hard course. There were a total of 79 teams fielding over 1,700 runners.

On the easy course there were 294 boys and 264 girls. Dakota Powers was the top OH runner, finishing in 22nd overall in a time of 16:40. His brother Caley, Alex Krantz, Nathan Wagner, Gunnar Melnick and Chris Opdyke were all in the top 100. Jonalynn Horn was the first OH girl, finishing in 12th with a time of 19:51. Ashley Everett, Mackenzie Jackson and Nikki Blanchard were also in the top 100.

John Rodheffer finished 2nd overall out of 375 runners in the boys moderate race, clocking in at 18:45. Esai Cunningham, Stephen Miller, Clayton Richardson, Isaac Matthews, Wyatt Homola and Patrick Mayer were all in the top 100. For the girls, Hannah Bressler was 7th out of 238 girls, finishing in 23:38. Taylor Von Grey was 18th and Carlie Kenny 25th.

Finally, in the hard course, OH senior Matt Reith was 6th of 366 boys, crossing the line in 20:15. Josh Schrum was 20th and John Kaltenbach 22nd. Oak Harbor junior Christina Wicker competed against 227 other girls on the hard course and beat them all, coming in first overall with a time of 23:48. Alex Laiblin was 28th, Heather Dale 31st and Rachel Crowther 73rd.