By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
SILVER FALLS, Ore.–In the Girls Varsity Race at the Silver Falls Oktoberfest Invitational on Wednesday, Dallas’ Avery Hoffman used the strategy of keeping up with Crescent Valley’s Alexa Montgomery and Zoe Montgomery. The Raider duo built themselves a nice lead early on the field, but Hoffman was a few seconds back trying to keep them in her sights.
“Our goal was to stick with the CV girls and Zoe really helped me through it, keeping my eyes on her. Watching them go up that hill, it pushed me through it. Running this fast, this early in the season, it’s different from last year. So I’m pretty excited,” said Hoffman.
Alexa Montgomery finished first, winning with a time of 18:22.24 and Zoe Montgomery finished second with a time of 18:43.94.
Hoffman finished third behind the duo with a PR time of 19:06.18 with the goal for Hoffman is to get her time under 19 minutes this season.
“Definitely upping my mileage,” said Hoffman.
The rest of the Top 10 featuring 5A and 6A runners.Silverton’s Katelyn Buchnoff finished fifth as one of those runners.
Just outside of the Top 10, finishing 11th was Regis’ Frankie Koehnke. The sophomore was the highest finishing small school athlete with a time of 21:07.83.
“It felt really good, especially facing good competition…I just knew I had to keep my form, I knew I would do good and always taking deep breaths, which helped me during the race,” saod Koehnke.
Koehnke is aiming to qualify for the State Meet later this Fall, and is using last year’s tenth place finish at the 3A/2A/1A Special District Meet last year as a freshman as motivation.
In the boys race, Silverton’s Cole Rose overcame the mental hurdle of the “Mini-Monster” en route to a sixth-place finish in the race with a PR time of 16:52.6 innings Wednesday afternoon in the first Varsity Race of the day.
He credits his Head Coach Erik Cross in his success in the race and the build up to this point early in the season.
“He pushed me, he motivated me to compete at another level that I thought I’d never get to,” starts Rose. “Like today, there was the Mini-Monster and I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to make it up all the way, but if it wasn’t for my teammates, I was really happy with how it went.”
Regis’ Elias Piercy had himself a solid race at the Silver Falls Oktoberfest Invitational. The 2A/1A runner placed 13th in the field with a time of 17:23.98. And though it wasn’t the best of races for him physically, he led the Ramswho saw Stuart McLaughlin (16th) and Harper Stoops (17th) finishing in the Top 20.
“Lowkey, I did not feel really good at all, I felt like i should’ve been a lot faster, but it’s a PR early on in the season,” said Piercy on his race.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
