Lents Park was home to the PIL District meet on Oct. 29. The girls and boys teams went into the races with the goal of making state. Due to stellar performances, seven athletes were able to qualify, including the girls team. Senior Kai Jensen won the PIL title at the PIL district meet, and with him, two other Cleveland runners ran their way onto the PIL Cross Country First Team.
The meet started with the boys varsity race at 2 p.m. “The conditions were perfect, it was a beautiful day,” said senior Grant Breger, leading to a great meet for all Cleveland runners.
Jensen won the district championship with a time of 15:49.45, beating out 48 other runners. He credits this win to his offseason work.
“Year round, I have trained every day except Sundays,” he said.
Breger placed sixth and punched his way to the state meet. Cleveland scored a total of 89 points, placing them fifth in the district. They lost the tiebreaker to Grant as they also scored 89 points, but had their sixth-place finisher place nine spots higher than Cleveland’s.
The girls varsity race followed and saw three Cleveland runners win All-PIL honors. Senior star Olivia Palmer placed sixth, improving from placing 31st at the district championship her junior year.
Senior Charlotte Gardner placed 17th, and sophomore Leora Mellor placed 23rd, both earning All-PIL honorable mention. These stellar performances got Cleveland 98 points and a fourth-place finish in the district.
In the OSAA coaches meeting the following weekend, it was decided that the PIL would get two wildcard teams in both the boys and girls categories. Along with PIL teams, the Three Rivers League sent their third and fourth place teams, Lakeridge and Tualatin. On the boys’ side, Westview of the Metro League and South Medford from the Southwest Conference got the final two wildcard spots. Cleveland was just a tiebreaker away from sending both the boys and girls teams to state. That being said, they still qualified nine runners for the state championship meet.
On the morning of Nov. 8, cross country teams across the state gathered on the grounds of Lane Community College for what most consider to be the climax of the cross country season, that being the OSAA State championship. This year, the meet saw the presence of the Cleveland girls varsity team, which qualified in its entirety, as well as Jensen and Breger from the boys team.
The varsity boys race started at 2:55, with Jensen and Breger finishing in the top 40. Jensen ran a time of 15:50.6, placing 20th, and Breger placed 34th with a time of 16:11.1.
The full girls’ varsity team, made up of four seniors, two sophomores, and one junior, had their race begin at 3:30. Team captain Lucy Moenning placed the highest for the Cleveland team at state with a time of 20:43.98.
“My performance at state is the first race that I have been happy with this season. I feel like I struggled a little bit and haven’t been achieving what I wanted to, but that was the first race in which I felt strong,” Moenning said.
The state championship meet marked the 2025 cross country season coming to a close. The season has been extremely eventful and has seen new highs for the team. Since it began in July, the team has participated in 14 different meets in which many of its athletes have gained impressive new levels of endurance and speed.
Throughout the season, there have been many notable performances from some of the top runners on the team, such as team captain Kai Jensen’s performance at the Mook XC Invite 5000 meters race, in which he placed 21st out of 148 runners with an impressive time of 15:02.5, the fastest time of any athlete on the boys’ team this year. Also displaying phenomenal performance was team captain Olivia Palmer, who placed highest on the girls varsity team in both the 3000 meters with a time of 11:34.15 at the “Night Meet” back in August, as well as the best time in the 5000 meter race, at the “Mook XC Invite at Alderbrook” with a time of 19:03.3.
For many athletes, this season will be their last, as the 17 seniors of the team will not be returning in 2026. This includes the all senior group of team captains.
“It’s super sad, I’ve really loved everybody that I’ve gotten to know,” said Moenning, one of the captains.
While the cross country season is over, most athletes will be returning for the track season in the spring. Team captain Owen Threadgill is one such athlete. “I’m really excited about this upcoming track season. I know that many people will be training over the winter season – myself included – and I know that everybody will bring their A game for the 2026 track season,” he said.
While the seniors leave the team for good, it is inevitable that the next generation of runners take up the mantle that they leave behind. Jensen leaves this piece of advice for the underclassmen stepping into leadership positions next year: “Train offseason. If you don’t, you’re going to be a lot slower, so if you actually want to be fast, you have got to train year round, especially for distance.”
It is unknown how the performance of the team will be affected by the loss of all of its captains, but it is hoped that the athletes who replace them will be just as fast if not faster.
