Pacers’ O’Neill takes 5th at State Cross Country

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By Matthew Sherman

The Lake Oswego Review, Nov 12, 2009

Conditions were far from ideal at the state cross country meet in Eugene last weekend. The skies threatened to open up all afternoon and, when it was time for the 6A races, they finally did.

Both boys and girls teams endured a slow and soggy course along with rain and wind which led to slow times but some very solid performances.

The standout race of the afternoon belonged to Lakeridge freshman Kelly O'Neill. In her first state meet, O'Neill nearly matched her season-best time.

She finished in fifth place overall in 18:54 and was the highest finishing freshman in the race.

O'Neill stayed within striking distance of the lead pack for much of the race but was content to bide her time and make sure that she didn't get over-aggressive.

"My goal was to try and stay close to the pack and keep with them as long as I could and then hang in there at the end," O'Neill said.

For the first half, she was solidly in the top-20 but, as the race wore on, runners slowly started to fade.

With roughly 800 meters to go, O'Neill had passed a handful of competitors and, as she headed toward the track, she found herself in the top-five.

While the top four individual spots were claimed by runners from Jesuit and Tualatin, O'Neill actually finished as the top runner from the Three Rivers League, narrowly beating Milwaukie's Erin McLaughlin and Lake Oswego's Tate Murray, both of whom had finished ahead of her at districts a week earlier.

"I'm really happy with how I finished. I was just trying to get top-15 and hopefully top-10 to get on the podium," O'Neill said.

For Murray, it was a difficult way to end her fantastic high school career.

After battling injuries and sickness this year, she came down with a sinus infection shortly before the state meet.

That sickness was exacerbated by the cold weather but Murray still turned in a gutsy race.

All season long her goal was to hang with Jesuit's top two runners who were the favorites to win state. And, for two thirds of the race, that's exactly what she did.

Despite feeling terribly, Murray didn't adjust her strategy and hung with Annamarie Maag and Payton Schutte.

But with about 1,000 meters to go, Murray started to fade.

Her effort was still good enough to get her on the podium again though.

"It was definitely frustrating. I really wasn't feeling very well and I don't know how much that had to do with it or if I just had an off day," Murray said.

The Lake Oswego girls team ended up taking eighth place overall in a strong showing.

Latane Cox cracked the top-25, taking 22nd overall in a very strong time of 19:38.

Finishing next for the Lakers was Emily Gaddis in 51st in 20:29 which was just six seconds off of her best time of the season.

Sarah Morse also came close to her best time of the year, which was impressive considering how slow the course at Lane Community College was running.

The Lakers finished solidly in eighth and easily beat West Linn in the meet. The Lions won last week's district meet and beat the Lakers in a dual meet earlier in the season.

In the boys race, Lakeridge finished ninth in what marked the Pacers' first trip to state as a team in decades.

Max Heninger led the charge for Lakeridge and finished in 38th in a time of 17:03.

Alec Koh was next for the Pacers and had one of his better races of the year, taking 54th place in a time of 17:18.

Freshman Julian Heninger was just nine seconds behind Koh and Kevin Pearson came just six seconds behind Heninger as Lakeridge ran well as a team and helped pace each other through a tough race.

Chrstian Veillet was the Pacers' No. 5 runner on Saturday.