Top individuals leave drama to team races.

Byline: Curtis Anderson The Register-Guard

There was little drama in the individual races at the OSAA boys cross country championships Saturday.

Three solid favorites, three solo performances.

Oakridge senior Brad Taylor churned over the muddy, rain-soaked, 5,000-meter course at Lane Community College in a time of 16 minutes, 20 seconds to collect his third consecutive Class 2A/1A title.

Stayton's Jared Swehosky followed with an equally dominant victory as he earned his first 3A title with a 16:11 clocking, 24 seconds ahead of runner-up Kenshin Scoggin of Cottage Grove.

Finally, Central Catholic's Kenny Klotz gave Oregon fans a taste of what to expect in the years to come as the UO recruit won his second straight 4A crown with a time of 15:35, a full 21 seconds in front of Crater's Isaac Stoutenburgh.

Not a single misstep among them.

But when it came time to sort out the team trophies Saturday, it was a totally different story. There was both history and heartache on display, with the most bizarre ending coming in the 3A competition.

Top-ranked Marist appeared to be on its way to victory when its No. 1 runner, sophomore Matt Hollander, collapsed on the track with 50 meters to go. The rest of the Spartan runners - and countless others - flashed past Hollander before he could get up and crawl across the finish line in 100th place.

`It was the strangest feeling I've ever had,' said Hollander, who stood 16th when he hit the track for the final 300 meters. `I tied up to the point where I couldn't go on. I lost control of myself and I could not move. I just stood there staring at the track and there was nothing I could do.'

There was nothing Marist could do, either.

With Hollander slipping from first to seventh in their order of finish, the Spartans were forced to settle for third place with 138 points. Wilsonville came out on top with 134 points, followed by Phoenix in second at 135. Defending state champion Siuslaw placed fourth at 144.

`I'm numb,' said Marist coach Cathie Twomey Bellamy, and those feelings had nothing to do with the inclement weather.

`Never in my wildest dreams did I think this would happen. It's the horror story where you stand on top of the berm and go, `Oh my gosh.' But that's why you coach. I just have to add one more to the memory bank.'

The Spartans, with six sophomores on their varsity roster, have to be wondering what it will take to finally catch a break.

Marist didn't qualify for state last year after placing third at the Sky-Em League district championships behind two teams - Siuslaw and Elmira - who went on to place 1-2 at the state meet.

Still, the Spartans left LCC with their best finish in school history.

`That score being that close is a testament to how strong this team is,' Twomey Bellamy said. `There must be a huge plan in this somewhere. It's very apparent that Marist is blessed with a talent pool at the moment, but last year the Sky-Em had a little more talent than we did and we didn't even get there.

`This year, we're sophomores and it ain't our time yet, so we have another year to wait on this. I've waited 365 days to be here and I can wait another 365 days, and I need to convince those seven guys they can do the same.'

Central Catholic didn't wait to make history Saturday.

The Rams, with Klotz setting the pace, raced off with the Class 4A title with a record-setting score of 23 points. Luke Wiltshire and Taylor Morgan finished ninth and 10th, respectively, while Nick Turner was 13th and freshman Samot Turina 16th.

When you throw out the runners who competed as individuals, Central Catholic's top five finished 1-3-4-6-9 for the lowest point total in the history of the meet.

Canyonville Bible Academy won the Class A title with 24 points in 1977, while South Eugene's 32 points in 1975 to capture the Class AAA state crown was the previous low score among large schools.

`When I doped out the meet last night, I thought we would score about 35 points, but our freshman made the difference,' Central Catholic coach Dave Frank said. `I had him in the top 30 and he came in 16th. There can't be 10 freshmen in the country that are any better than him.'

Summit placed second with 117 points, while Jesuit and Grant tied at 140, but the Crusaders took third based on a better performance from their No. 6 runner. South Eugene, with senior Eric Lynch taking 17th overall, finished sixth and Thurston placed 11th as senior Nathan Endicott placed 19th.

Top-ranked Oakridge won the 2A/1A title, but it wasn't as easy as expected.

The Warriors finished with 83 points, while New Hope Christian was a close second at 89. Westside Christian was third at 116 and Vale fourth with 148.

`I was a little worried because we had 13 good races this year, and somewhere along the way you're going to have a bad one,' Oakridge coach Ron Hebert said. `But we have seven good kids, and when two guys run bad, the others will come through, and that's what happened.'

Taylor, who won his race by 39 seconds, became the first 2A/1A runner to win three individual state titles, and only the third performer in Oregon history to claim more than two crowns - Junction City's Billy Harper won four titles (1992-95) and South Eugene's Bill McChesney captured three (1974-76).

`That's awesome,' Taylor said. `When I started running, I didn't expect to be here, so I couldn't be happier. ... The course was wet and sloppy today, so I didn't really care what my time was. I know where I'm at with my training.'

Myrtle Point senior Chris Platano placed second in the 2A/1A race with a time of 16:59, while McKenzie junior David Sherman was third at 17:01. Oakridge's Ben Altemus was 11th at 17:44.

There was a strong Sky-Em contingent in the 3A race.

Scoggin, the Lions senior, finished second at 16:35. Siuslaw's Kyle Kotaich placed third (16:42), Elmira's Evan Carman was sixth (16:47) and Cottage Grove's Korey Humberston was 11th (17:03).

But nobody was going to catch Swehosky.

`I knew if I worked hard, good things would happen,' Swehosky said. `That's what I did last summer and during the regular season. My strategy was to go out hard and look back as little as possible. After the first hill, I was out in front, so I said, `OK, let's keep it like that.' I felt in control.'

CAPTION(S):

Oakridge's Brad Taylor raced to his third consecutive Class 2A/1A individual title in 16:20. Eric Lynch runs to a 17th-place finish to lead South Eugene to sixth place in the team race.