Viking boys place second at Tugman invite
Isaac Griffes and Jack Pickell Siuslaw Vikings cross country coach Chris Johnson gave his team an early-season pep talk on Monday, and it paid off Wednesday at the North Bend Tugman Invitational at Tugman State Park.
"We had a big talk on Monday — and not that last Saturday was a big important thing — we didn't run like Siuslaw Vikings teams I've coached in the past," Johnson said.
Saturday the Vikings varsity boys were a lackluster 24th of 35 teams at the Ash Creek Festival in Monmouth. Senior Celie Mans was the only girl to run in the varsity division.
Wednesday, the Siuslaw boys were the top-scoring Far West League school and second overall, totalling 62 points. Bandon won with 45.
Host North Bend was third with 77, Marshfield fourth with 118, Brookings-Harbor fifth with 120, South Umpqua sixth with 141 and Douglas ninth among 10 scoring schools with 227.
For the Vikings, junior Isaac Griffes was sixth overall in the 5,000-meter race in 17 minutes, 21.79, senior Jack Pickell seventh in 17:22.0, freshman Kiger Johnson 15th in 18:18.91, junior Jordan Northrop 18th in 18:25.16 and senior Ryan Alletson 19th in 18:26.54.
Griffes, Johnson, Northrop and Alletson all posted personal records.
"That was a good effort," Johnson said of Wednesday's race. "We're obviously very, very young. Jack and Isaac are somewhat experienced, but we have four freshmen, three in the top seven.
"We're going to rely on them. Every race they'll get more experience, every workout they'll get more confident and stronger. And we'll see what happens."
Other freshmen for the Vikings include Brendon Jensen, 21st in 18:27.53; Jonah Jarman, 28th in 18:46.63, and Jared Northrop, 35th in 19:01.31.
Senior Sean Burns was 30th in 18:48.70.
On the girls side, Siuslaw was led by seniors Celie Mans (second place in 18:36.00) and Destinie Tatum (15th in 22:50.51).
The Vikings' other five runners were freshmen, with Hannah Rannow 17th in 22:52.10, Chloe Madden 18th in 23:01.77, Anne Wartnik 29th in 23:26.79, Bryn Clement 44th in 26:08.55 and Trinity Erickson 45th in 26:12.77.
Siuslaw was third in the five-school field with 55 points. North Bend had 41 and South Umpqua 53. Brookings-Harbor, Douglas and Marshfield had runners entered but not enough to score as a team.
There were 78 boys racing varsity, 51 girls.
Overall, Johnson was pleased with the results, but asked for more.
"A lot of times on these teams, the kids think 'We're Siuslaw, and everything is going to be great,'" he said. "I try to tell them that the kids before didn't have that mentality. Their mentality was 'We're going to work our butts off, get to the point that we can be proud of what's on our chest.'"
With nearly half the team in the freshman class — 5 of 9 girls and 4 of 11 boys — Johnson will be patient, to a point.
"It's a big lump of clay," he said of his young teams. "Each day we'll work on it a bit more, and make it into a statue."
Complete meet results are on athletic.net at http://www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/Results/Meet.aspx?Meet=117377#/183.
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