Wilsonville runners battle through the rain at Putnam

The Wildcats did what they needed to do.

The Wilsonville cross country teams - facing La Salle, Putnam and Milwaukie in Northwest Oregon Conference action at Rex Putnam High School on Wednesday, Sept. 25 – raced, competed, improved and moved the ball forward for the rest of their 2024 season.

Boys Race

In the boys race, the Wildcats competed without their top two runners – juniors Liam Wilde and Brady Grant – but still beat two of the three teams they faced, knocking off Putnam 26-29 and Milwaukie 20-35, while falling to La Salle 21-36.

With those results, Wilsonville moved to 2-1 in NWOC action. Next up, the Wildcats will compete in the Grant Robison Invitational at Joe Dancer Park in McMinnville at 3:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 3.

“(We) are running medium right now. Almost everybody has had a good race so far, just not all seven on the same day,” said Wilsonville coach David Barkley. “They are training hard and pushing each other, but we still need to all show up with our spikes on the same Saturday. If we can do that, we can contend for league title.”

In their rain-soaked meet at Rex Putnam, senior Parker Fish set the pace for Wilsonville by finishing second overall with a finishing time of 18 minutes, 7.50 seconds. He trailed just freshman event-winner John Rispler of Putnam and his winning time of 17:59.40.

The Wildcats also got top-10 finishes from sophomore Noah Robledo (seventh at 19:04.60) and sophomore Tyler Dougall (10th at 19:19.80), followed by sophomore Hayden Fish (14th at 19:42.10) and senior Tristan Hamilton (19th at 20:21.90).

Girls Race

Likewise, the Wildcat girls worked on their fitness, their racing ability and their pack during the meet at Putnam, eventually falling 20-35 to La Salle and 17-40 to Putnam, while beating Milwaukie (which did not field a full team).

With those results, Wilsonville moved to 2-1 in NWOC action. Next up, the Wildcats will compete in the Grant Robison Invitational at Joe Dancer Park in McMinnville at 4 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 3.

“We were having our (experienced runners) pace the young runners,” Barkley said. “Learning how to concentrate and race hard for 20 minutes takes a while so we are trying to shorten the learning curve.”

Wilsonville’s efforts at Putnam were led by freshman Juliet Tadema (she was ninth overall with a new personal-best of 24:34.80) and senior team leader Jadyn Kipe (she was 10th at 24:36.0, but currently holds the best time in the NWOC this season).

Following their top two, the Wildcats saw senior Sophia Dyer take 14th at 24:46.80, followed by sophomore Isabella McLean (17th at 25:06.50) and junior Cleo Christy (18th with a season record of 25:31.50).

“Our top three are crushing it - Kipe is out of this world right now,” Barkley added. “We have a few younger ones that are really chipping away at their PRs every week and might just help us a lot before the season is over.”

La Salle’s Maya Crimin won the girls race with a finishing time of 19:52.90.