No regular season cross country meet this season brings as much competition as the Nike Portland XC Invite at Blue Lake Regional Park. Over 130 teams descend upon the region from three states. And the runner from one of the smallest schools there, Toledo’s Conner Hill, made quite the statement.
The sophomore ran the 5,000-meter course in 16 minutes, 6.90 seconds to place 19th in the Division I boys race on Friday.
After not breaking 17 minutes at all as a freshman, Hill has broken that mark twice in four races. His time is 31 seconds faster than his season-opening time at the Jack and Jill Invite.
Tumwater was the other area team in the field and on the boys side, more lifetime bests were set. Hayden Newman placed 68th in a new PR of 16:57.10 while Tyler Clark ran 17:01.61 to place 73rd. Landon Martin, Will Zahn and TJ Kressin all finished inside the top-170.
On the girls side, the T-Birds junior Alexandra Broome ran the Division 2 race and clocked a new season-best time of 20:18.10 to finish 20th.
Knight paces Wolves to top-10 team finish
Sophomore Maddie Knight ran under 22 minutes for the first time in her prep career to cross the line in 11th place, fueling Black Hills to a ninth place team placement at Saturday’s Return of the Salmon Invite at Osprey Park.
Averie Reynolds also placed in the top-20, running 22:11.60 for a new personal best and Jane Birchard was 39th in 23:33.80, also a PR. Olivia Dell and Camille Wilson finished 95th and 109th, respectively.
Over on the boys side, Black Hills placed 11th with 309 points out of 14 teams. Seth Thomasson and Roberto Jesus finished inside the top-60, both running sub-19 minutes. Nathan Brazil was 76th while Jameson Ruiz and Liam Altrum secured placements of 101st and 106th.
