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St. Mary's Coolidge outruns the competition By Greg Stiles Trevor Coolidge admitted the caliber of competition wasn�t what he figured to see at Saturday�s State of Jefferson cross-country meet at Lithia Park. There wasn�t much the St. Mary�s senior could do about it. What Coolidge could do was go out and prove once again he�s one of Oregon�s top distance runners � no matter the classification. "It would�ve been nice if there would�ve been some more larger schools," Coolidge said after covering the 5,000-meter course in 16 minutes, 28.4 seconds. "But there was plenty of competition as it was." Coolidge took charge about a mile into the race and never was seriously challenged. South Medford junior Shaun Olson was second in 16:38.3, while Henley�s Patrick McLain was third in 16:41.5. South Medford won the Division I boys team title with 64 points, Grants Pass was second with 70 and Ashland was third with 74. South Albany (69), South Umpqua (83) and Phoenix (91) were the top three Division II teams. Rogue River�s Bobbi Wright won the girls race with a 19:49.3 effort. St. Mary�s Jenny Brown was second in 20:02.3 and Kris Sonniksen of Beaverton�s Westview was third in 20:07.6. South Eugene won the Division I team title with 44 points, Ashland was second with 65 and Rogue River third with 93. Yreka, Calif., (53) led the Division II competition, followed by Mazama (73) and North Bend (77). Coolidge hoped to see South Eugene�s Erik Heinonen in the mix. But the Midwestern League star was on a recruiting trip back east. Still, Coolidge opted to follow, rather than lead, in the early going. "I wanted someone to take it out for at least a mile," he said. "But I ended up taking over going up the first hill. Just after a mile, I could feel them backing off the pace." South�s Olson, in his first year of cross country after playing soccer the past two falls, went out strong but lost his pace momentarily. "I tried to maintain my pace and speed up a little going up hill," he said. He ran behind Coolidge and McLain for a while. "I was going to break in, but they wouldn�t let me pass," Olson said. "Then Trevor took off with a nice surge in the middle of the race and got a good cushion. I closed a lot on him earlier, but he had the cushion. "If I was within 10 meters, I don�t know if I�d beat him. But I sure know I would�ve made him work for it." Chris McLean and Andy Kleinhesselink finished 11th and 14th, but scored seventh and eighth in the team standings as the Panthers fought off Southern Oregon Conference rival Grants Pass. Like Coolidge, Wright figured the competition would be stiffer. But Ashland�s Paris Edwards � the defending Class 4A state champion � sat out the race after passing out at last week�s Stanford Invitational. She was a spectator Saturday but plans to race again this week. "I expected Paris and (Klamath Union�s) Liz Lindgren to be here," Wright said. "I just went out slow and then passed people on the hills. Pushing the hills and working down hill seemed to work." Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.