October races including NWOC Districts

October was when the season truly broke loose and we got to see which teams were going to be front runners at the state meet. October had the Harrier Classic on October 2nd, a league meet at Rex Putnam HS on October 13th, the Lewis and Clark Invitational on October 16th and the NWOC District Championships on October 27th. 

The Harrier Classic was a lightning fast course, and the large number of 5A teams proved it to be a short one. On the boys end, Wilsonville took 4th in the meet and second in 5A, ahead of South Albany who finished 5th, with Crescent Valley winning in 1st place. The times from the meet however were rather irrelevant, as the length of the course was unknown. 

On October 13th, was another league meet, and another tempo. With the Lewis and Clark invitational three days after the league meet, Coach Barkley inspired wisdom in his runners and made sure that they didn’t treat the race as an actual race, just as a workout. 

October 16th was the day it finally counted, questions about the Harrier Classic would be answered, and on the boys end, it led for a legitimate school record with Mason Weisgerber breaking the record he set last month running 15:31.70. 

Wilsonville girls finished 21st at the meet while the Wilsonville boys finished 8th both in the fastest heats of the day. The meet extended the Varsity roster size to ten, three more spots than in traditional cross country, which led to what could only be described as stampede at the starting line. 

Last up for October, the NWOC District Championship. For all of the junior varsity kids, it was their last shot at a major race that season. All runners lowered their weekly mileage and added in some more speed work tuning up for this race. The boys dominated the meet for the 5th year in a row with the whole scoring five being all-district runners. 

The girls had something big to prove to Rex Putnam, they took the race by storm and finished way ahead of their seeding. The scoring five finished 2nd, 4th, 5th, 9th and 16th. Girls from Putnam that normally have dominated the Wilsonville girls couldn’t keep up with the Wildcats this race leading for the upset of the year in NWOC cross country with Wilsonville winning over Putnam in a score of 36-39.