TDHS Cross Country competes strong in Pendleton, gets preview of districts' course

By Jill Pearson

“See you in 13 days!” the Pendleton coaches waved to us and Hood River as we loaded the buses to head home.

Thursday, Oct. 14, was the Intermountain Conference’s “Preview” meet at Birch Creek Golf Course in Pendleton, the same course they will run for districts on the 27th.

Along with two other Intermountain Conference schools, The Dalles was joined by area schools Union, Nixyaawii, and Condon. The idea of a preview meet is to get runners familiar with a course- in this case, a spectacularly flat, grassy, and pant-shaped two loops around the golf course- as well as a chance to scope out the competition. 

The competition was formidable, and so were the Riverhawks. 

Phoebe Wood from Hood River won the girls’ race at 20:42, with Alaina Casady in 6th and Caitie Wring in 9th about a minute behind. A strong personal best for Lucy (24:06), and consistent showings from Gabrielle and Caitlin helped TD girls place 3rd behind Hood River and Union. All three JV girls PR’d despite some setbacks in the past week. 

For the boy’s race, Juan Diego Contreras returned to win the boys’ race at 15:43, with teammate Leo Lemann in third place. Team Captain Conor Blair finally saw a substantial PR at 18:08 (10th place), with brothers Egan and Vincent Ziegenhagen within a minute behind him. The Riverhawk squad placed second, just eight points behind Hood River. Planning for districts, Conor speculated that it’ll likely come down to how the sixth and seventh runners on each varsity team race. Today the sixth runner- although he was seeded for JV- was freshman Trey Hodges, beaming with a 20 second PR and just under 19 minutes- enough to win the JV race. 

For the rest of JV boys, a solid pack between Gabe Castillo, Caleb Caldwell, and Josef Lutz, along with teammates Andrew Wring and Colin Webber racing each other to the line within a second of each other- helped their team place first, with a combined score of 20 points. The unofficial word on the sidelines of the course?

“Those Dalles freshman boys are fast!”

See you in 13 days: the freshman boys- and the rest of the Riverhawk squad- will be ready. 

Next Thursday The Dalles races in Beaverton at the Valiant Invitational. See the rest of their schedule here: https://www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/School.aspx?SchoolID=160

For the rest of the Riverhawk times, click here: https://www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/meet/197526/results