Seniors Jensen, Rannow both taste victory


Siuslaw senior Brendon Jensen

The Siuslaw cross country team doesn't have a senior night, but it does have The Run for the Brownies.

Thursday, seniors ruled as Brendon Jensen and Hannah Rannow ran off with individual titles at the Florence Golf Links.

Thursday was the final home event for Siuslaw seniors Jensen, Kiger Johnson, Jared Northrop and Louis Gentry on the boys side, and Rannow, Anne Wartnik, Chloe Madden and Bryn Clement on the girls side.

Jensen was the only runner under 10 minutes, clocking 9 minutes, 49.54 seconds for the 3,000-meter course.

"The boys are just so deep," Siuslaw coach Chris Johnson said, looking ahead now to district. "We have eight really solid boys.

"It's a luxury, but also a presents us with a difficult choice when putting together the postseason line-up where we are limited to seven runners on the varsity.

"We've been monitoring it all season and will continue to watch and analyze all the metrics we have before making the final decision that could come as late as Thursday."

Siuslaw freshman Samuel Ulrich was second in 10:01.17 and junior Jaxson Jensen third in 10:04.91 as Vikings boys finished 1 through 10.

Rannow was 12th overall in 11:03.14, while junior Brea Blankenship was the second girl and 14th overall in 11:30.49, sophomore Rylee Colton the third girl and 15th overall in 11:30.75 and junior Gracie Freudenthal the fourth girl and 16th overall in 11:34.24.

"Gracie keeps getting better and better," Johnson said, again looking ahead to district. "She's had great workouts lately and her confidence in her abilities as a cross country runner are catching up to her potential.

"She makes us a lot better when she runs near Brea and Riley."

Siuslaw dominated the two-way team races, beating Pacific 15-50 in the boys race and Waldport 15-49 in the girls race.

Race results are online at https://www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/Results/Meet.aspx?Meet=161687&show=all

Next up for the Vikings is the Sky-Em League Championships this coming Thursday at Lane Community College in Eugene.

The OSAA 4A State Championships are Saturday, Nov. 9, also at Lane Community College in Eugene.