Thursday September 8th was the season opener for Brookings-Harbor varsity cross-country head coach Jason Fulton and his boys and girls cross-country teams as the Bruins hosted their only cross-country event featuring 10 teams from across the region to a new venue.
Head Coach Jason Fulton, Athletic Director Keith Wallin and Chris Clark, manager at Salmon Run golf course, combined efforts to feature the beautiful surroundings of Brookings own Salmon Run Golf Course for the first time. Together they mapped, walked and marked the 5,000 meter course that initially was planned to use the cool marine air as a respite for athletes, as temperatures inland typically soar during this part of the cross-country season.
However, mother nature did not cooperate as temperatures at race-time were arguably the hottest in the area all year with temperatures reading 98 degrees on local thermometers as the runners lined up late Thursday afternoon at the start line.
The day started off with the girls lining up on the 18th hole starting line before a course that would wind through the beautiful rugged back nine holes of the course, through fairways and on cart paths featuring a challenging grade and several bridges.
With no girls participating in the event from Brookings-Harbor High School, senior Saniyah Ayala from St. Mary’s finished the grueling course finishing first, completing the 5,000 meters in time of 21:44, almost two minutes quicker than Fortuna’s senior Ella Owsley who finished the course in 23:07. Gold Beach’s Abigail Davis finished the course in a time 36:50 for the Panthers.
Coach Fulton sent 8 Bruin boys to the starting line to compete with nine other powerful cross country teams in the sweltering afternoon heat. Gold Beach senior Gianni Altman made quick work of the field taking a commanding lead early, finishing the course in 17:56, almost four minutes ahead of St. Mary’s sophomore runner Vincent Savage who finished the course in 20:19. The Bruins junior, Colby Anderson Nelson, finished 15th of the 51 runners, with a time of 23:36.
Talking with coach Fulton after the meet, he told the Compass “Congratulations to all participants, weather conditions were challenging for all runners this afternoon.” “As for the Bruins,” he continued, “This is a great group of young men that are truly fun to be around and I am very proud of these young men’s performances in their first meet.” he said, “I feel we will see large improvements throughout the year. Also I would also like to acknowledge freshman Julius Johnson and Jakob Freeman-Goodell who ran extremely hard for their first Varsity race.”
“It was a great venue that will become our home course in the future” coach Fulton said, and I need to acknowledge the people that did the heavy lifting to make this venue change a success, including, the manager of Salmon Run Golf Course, Chris Clark, who’s idea it was to have the meet there, Athletic Director Keith Wallin and Dustin Wesel who marked the course, Karissa Horn who recorded the results, and of course, the many fans who lined the course encouraging the athletes along the way.
The Bruins next meet is at Valley of the Rouge State Park next Wednesday, September 14th.
