Creswell, Sports Zone

ALL-DISTRICT CROSS COUNTRY

Josiah Lee. File photo

CRESWELL – The Bulldog boys’ cross country leader all season, junior Brandon Moehlmann garnered 3A SD4 All-District honors by placing second at the Special District 4 Championships, held Oct. 29 at Lane Community College.
Moehlmann’s time of 17:14.90 was just six seconds off the pace set by individual district champion, Kaleb Barnes – a sophomore from district team champion Brookings-Harbor, who posted a winning time of 17:08.90.
Creswell’s Josiah Lee, a fellow junior and consistent close second to Moehlmann all season, placed fifth at district in 18:10.10, also earning All-District honors.
”Brandon was fourth and Josiah was seventh in districts last year; they’re competing against a lot of the same kids and they both moved up two spots,” noted Coach Jonathan Ferguson. ”I’m pretty sure no one graduated out of the top seven last year; it says so much about how much they’ve improved compared to the rest of the crowd.”
The duo’s strong finishes helped Creswell place second, earning a team bid to state.
”Districts is really where you really start caring about the team aspect of cross country; up until then, it’s more of an individual sport,” Lee said. ”At districts, we all know that we need to do well as a team.”
”We don’t think about it being a team sport at first,” Moehlmann echoed. ”Once you go to districts and state, then it gets a little more competitive. But we’re all just working to improve ourselves, which in the end benefits the team as well.”
With Moehlmann placing 17th at state and Lee placing 31st, no Bulldogs made this year’s 3A/2A/1A All-State Team.
With 2019 in their rearview mirror, Creswell’s two top runners are setting personal and team goals for 2020.
”I’d love to be running in the 16s next year; I’ve gotten down to the low 17s, but I’d love to be able to run 16s,” said Moehlmann, whose PR of 17:01.50 was set at the Celtic Invite on Oct. 12. ”As a team, I’d love to win district. That would be sweet.”
”I’d love to win a district title,” agreed Lee, whose Celtic Invite time of 17:09.06 was also a PR. ”As a team, I’d love to get first place before I’m done with high school.”
It’s an achievable goal: Moehlmann and Lee have both shaved about three minutes off their freshman PRs, so ”it’s exciting to see what next year will bring,” Ferguson said, noting that with a senior-strong team, Ferguson expects the Bulldogs are ”probably going to come into the season with a top five (in state) preseason polls and projected to win the league, so they’re going to have a lot of outside expectations too.
”It’s something we haven’t had since I’ve been coaching here,” he added, ”so it’ll be a really fun experience. We’ve always kind of been the underdog.”

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