Cross country: Rodriguez third in 2A race; Warrenton team fourth in 3A

Gary Henley, The Daily Astorian, Ore.
·2 min read

Apr. 11—In the closest thing to an OSAA state cross country championship meet for the 2020-21 school year, Knappa's Isaiah Rodriguez was the top local runner Saturday, when the top runners and teams from the 1A to 4A levels gathered for the season-ending "showcase" meets.

One year after former Knappa teammate Robert Piña-Morton took second in the boys' 2A/1A state championship meet, Rodriguez placed third overall out of 111 runners in the 2A/1A season-ending meet Saturday at Cheadle Lake Park in Lebanon.

Union (48 points) topped Bandon (50) in the chase for the team title, while Vernonia was fifth in the team standings.

Knappa did not have enough runners to field a complete team, but Rodriguez finished the 5,000-meter course in 16 minutes, 45 seconds to finish behind seniors Sisay Hurty (16:25) of Stanfield/Echo and Brandon Williams (16:27) of East Linn Christian.

(In last year's meet, Piña-Morton was second in 16:00).

Knappa sophomore Clay Keyser placed 28th overall (18:29) in Saturday's meet.

In the girls' 3A/2A/1A meet, Warrenton junior Abigail Miller was 35th (22:43).

The top team finish from Clatsop County belonged to the Warrenton boys, who scored 95 points to finish fourth behind Enterprise (34), La Pine (68) and Westside Christian (74) in the 10-team field.

Warrenton senior Forrest Cooley was 12th in 17:38, while junior Jake Sorani of Cascade Christian was the individual winner in 15:58.

Warrenton's Zander Moha (16th) and freshman Indy Freyer (19th) were the other top 20 finishers for the Warriors, who were competing in their first state-level meet. Juniors Doc Freyer and Nathan Streibeck-Peterson (34th and 36th) rounded out Warrenton's top five.

Knappa sophomore Emily Larsen was 49th in a personal best 23:12 in the girls' 3A/2A/1A race.

In the 4A showcase meet at Marist High School in Eugene, Cowapa League champion Tillamook placed fifth out of 12 scoring teams on both the boys' and girls' side. The Astoria boys finished 12th, and the Lady Fishermen placed 11th.

The top Astoria finisher was sophomore Ella Zilli, who took 20th overall (20:58) in the girls' race. Sophomore John Clement was 41st (18:20) for the Astoria boys.