Crescent Valley stuns rival Corvallis to earn MWC cross country top honors

By Raju Woodward
Corvallis Gazette-Times

BROOKS - As expected, the Mid-Willamette Conference girls cross country championship came down between Corvallis and Crescent Valley on Saturday. What wasn’t expected, though, was that CV would run away with the title.

After all, it was CHS that went undefeated in MWC dual meet competition this season and defeated the Raiders last week in the final regular season dual meet. As a result, the Spartans were the favorites heading into districts.

But it was the Raiders who came out strong and finished with a flourish to win the championship at Willamette Mission State Park.

And it wasn’t even close.

Six CV runners placed in the top 10, as the Raiders scored 18 points to the CHS’s 38. The victory extended the Raiders’ streak of league or district titles to 16.

“It was incredible,” CV coach Tyler Bushnell said. “All of the girls ran amazing today. They did a great job.”

Leading the way for the Raiders was sophomore Madeline Entrikin who placed first with a time of 19 minutes, 25 seconds. Teammate and fellow sophomore Charlotte Fisher finished one second behind her to take second place. Entrikin said she thought she could do well, but she didn’t expect to win the race.

She and Spartans sophomore Annette Marinello were neck-and-neck until the last mile of the race. That’s when Entrikin made her move, pushing ahead of Marinello, with Fisher right on her heals. Marinello finished third in 19:34.

“I just knew I wanted our team to do well,” Entrikin said. “So I just wanted to do this for them. I just had a lot of adrenaline.”

But Entrikin had plenty of help. Her older sister, senior Mackenzie Entrikin, placed fourth, followed by sophomore Claire Krizan and freshman Meredith Wells. Senior Lizzy Vitello placed 10th. The surprise of the meet, however, may have been Fisher.

“It’s so exciting,” Fisher said. “This is my first year running cross country so I was really surprised … I can’t really explain it.”

Meanwhile, the Spartans couldn’t explain what happened to them on Saturday. Coach Mark Hulburt took some of the blame, saying that he and the rest of the coaches didn’t do a good enough job getting the girls ready to race. Marinello summed it up best though.

“We just didn’t come out very strong today,” she said. “We didn’t run the best we could have.”

It also didn’t help that CHS was missing senior standout Jen Johnson, who has been battling injuries the past few weeks. Hulburt said he hopes to have her back for the state meet next Saturday at Lane Community College in Eugene.

The Spartans received strong efforts from seniors Sloan Storie and Priscilla Proch, who finished seventh and ninth, respectively. Freshman Brigid Behrens was seventh, while senior Sarah Batten placed 11th.

“Sloan and Priscilla did really well for us today,” Hulburt said. “They have been improving a lot and they came up big.”

West Albany sophomore Sophie Kaplan and Lebanon senior Sierra Engler qualified for the state meet, finishing 14th and 16th, respectively. They will be joined by Silverton’s Danielle Zehrung and Dallas’ Dakota Magden at state as individuals representing the MWC. West Albany finished third, followed by Lebanon and South Albany.

While CHS is already looking ahead to next week in hopes of rebounding from its subpar performance, the Raiders, at least on Saturday, were basking in the glow of their surprising victory.

“As a team, we kind of came in as underdogs,” Fisher said. “CHS beat us last week, so we weren’t expected to win. They thought they could overtake us this year. But we just came out there using teamwork and just did really well.”

Team scores: Crescent Valley 18, Corvallis 38, Silverton 117, West Albany 119, Lebanon 129, South Albany 141, Dallas 177, Woodburn (inc.)

CV results: 1. Madeline Entrikin 19:25, 2. Charlotte Fisher 19:26, 4. Mackenzie Entrikin 19:51, 5. Claire Krizan 19:53, 6. Meredith Wells 19:54; 10. Lizzy Vitello 20:29, 13. Kelsey Ward 20:49

CHS results: 3. Annette Marinello 19:34, 7. Sloan Storie 19.55, 8. Brigid Behrens 20:13, 9. Priscilla Proch 20:25, 11. Sarah Batten 20:36, 15. Elena Gartner 20:55, 23. Jaclyn Rushing 22:25,

WAHS results: 14. Sophie Kaplan 20:50, 20. Tiga Evans 21.56, 24. Rose Ramirez 22:45, 30. Teal Barrett 23:36, 31. Makenna Becker 23:53, 38. Lily Bowman 24:29, 40. Stefanie Eckert 24:34

LHS results: 16. Sierra Engler 21:00, 21. Marli Corbett 22:06, 26. Anna Ma 23:17, 32. Monica Huang 23:56, 34. Amy Bloom 24:00, 37. Lynette Baker 24:19, 41. Morgan Wimmer 24:49

SAHS results: 18. Alyssa Swartzendruber 21.28, 22. Brianna Beckner 22:16, 27. Sara Karsteter 23:22, 35. Stephanie Bristow 24:01, 39. Mariah Dowless 24:33, 49. Aleec Boswell 26:16. 51. Natasha Carrick 26:37