EUGENE – As a team leader, Carter Bengtson believes one of his most important jobs is lifting up his fellow Cottage Grove runners, giving them all of the encouragement and gentle nudges they need to succeed.
On Thursday, during the combined Sky-Em 4A and 3A/2A/1A-SD4 District Cross Country Championships at Lane Community College, the Lions made quite a statement, placing seven runners on the boys team in the top 10.
“I wasn’t expecting that, but my God, am I glad that we did it. Those guys took care of business,” Bengtson said after winning the 5,000-meter race in a time of 5:35.14 – 22½ seconds ahead of second-place Conor Thompson of Marist.
“Those guys put in a hell of a lot of work. They worked their butts off. I could not be prouder to be teammates with these guys. They’re awesome.”
The Lions qualified for state for the fourth straight year – something that last happened from 1957-60, during Olympian Dyrol Burleson’s era, more than six decades ago.
“(What happened) today happened all summer,” Cottage Grove coach Ricky Knutson said. “We had 20 kids showing up all summer to run. Huge credit to their hard work.
CG boys with their team trophy after placing seven runners in the Top 10. CGHS Yearbook Staff Photo
“Winning is fun. Success is fun. When you see somebody like Carter have such a high level of success, that’s huge. But I give credit to some of these guys who have put in a lot of work and improved a lot, guys like Easton Hutchins. I think in his freshman year he was the No. 26 runner for us and now he’s our No. 2 guy. He saw other kids put in the work – Carter, and some of the others – and other kids see him now and believe they can do it, too.”
Hutchins finished 5th on Thursday with a time of 17:32.41. He was followed by David Culbert (6th, 17:45.21), Frank Garcia (7th, 17:46.13), Jackson Gifford (8th, 17:52.40), Jennings Albrecht (9th, 18:12.96), and Micah Hanke (10th, 18:13:78).
Knutson was also beaming about the efforts of his girls, who took second place behind Junction City.
Three Cottage Grove girls finished in the top 10 – Ella Cardwell (3rd, 19:27.51), Hailey Fergason (8th, 21:35.15), and Carly Knutson (9th, 21:41.24) – while Allison Palluck was 13th.
“Our top four girls were super strong and our No. 5 girl, Maddison France, hasn’t raced in a month,” Knutson said. “She’s been really sick, and she could have checked out and jogged it in, but she ran a really courageous race and finished 14th.”
This marks the third straight year that the Lions girls are going to state; before 2022, they had qualified only three times in school history.
Pleasant Hill’s Gage Roper placed third in the Boys 3A race with a time of 17:13.30, while teammate Devon Jones was ninth (17:42.79). The Billies’ Nellie Smith (20:40.94) finished 10th in the girls competition.
Next up is the state meet on Saturday, also at Lane CC.
