Marshfield'€™s Jared Bassett, right, runs up the hill with Hermiston'€™s Jordan Ringe a mile before the finish on Saturday. Basset became the first Marshfield state champion since Steve Prefontaine. World Photo by John Gunther.

EUGENE — Jared Bassett laughed at comparisons to legendary runner Steve Prefontaine.

Surrounded by a group of reporters on Saturday afternoon at Lane Community College, Bassett said he could only dream of being as good as the former Marshfield great.

“Kids see me working out at the track and they say, ‘It’s the next Prefontaine.’ I say, ‘No, no, no,’” Bassett said.

But the Marshfield senior put himself in elite Marshfield company by winning the Class 5A state cross country title Saturday.

Bassett became the first Marshfield champion since Prefontaine won the second of his back-to-back crowns in 1968. One other runner who spent most of his career at Marshfield, Matt Messner, won the title for Bend as a junior in 1985 before returning to Marshfield for his senior year.

Bassett was in a group of runners for the first two miles before he pulled away over the final mile of the 5,000-meter course to win in 15 minutes and 51 seconds. He finished nine seconds in front of Matt Miner of Ashland.

“I can’t believe it,” Bassett said, amazed by his own accomplishment. “I don’t feel like it really happened. I felt like I was in a dream coming down that last 100 meters.”

Bassett won the Midwestern League title at Lane Community College 11 days earlier, and followed his same strategy from that race by surging in the final mile.

“That’s where I felt it was best to attack,” he said. “I pushed it on the hills.”

He didn’t let up once he had pulled away from Jordan Ringe of Hermiston, who kept with him up the first of the two hills in the last mile before dropping back to finish third.

“I didn’t know what to think,” Bassett said. “I just kept kicking it hard.”

He was a little concerned early in the race, when the first mile passed in just under 5 minutes.

“The first mile was really fast,” he said. “I was a little scared of that. My goal was not to sprint the first mile.”

Bassett stayed with the leaders, and later found himself alone on the track for the final 300 meters, living out a lifelong dream.

“The whole week, I’ve been visualizing coming off the corner in first,” he said.

Though he shrugged off comparisons to Prefontaine, Bassett said being mentioned in the same sentence with Pre was “cool.”

While Bassett won Marshfield’s first individual title in nearly four decades, Crater repeated as boys team champion, finishing with 52 points, two better than Hermiston.

As good as Crater’s boys were, the Comets were even better in the girls race, setting a team scoring record.

Crater had five of the first eight runners. Michelly Foley of Crook County won the race in 18:58, and her younger sister Kellie was fifth. But because the Cowgirls didn’t have a complete team at state — their only other runner was sibling Leslie, who was 23rd — they didn’t count in the team scores. That left Crater with 16 points, edging the powerful 1992 Bend team, which finished with just 20 points and had all seven of its runners in the top 11 overall, for the best team score in history.

The dominance of Crater’s girls left two other outstanding teams on the outside in the state title hunt.

Crescent Valley had its five scoring runners among the top 18 runners, and all seven in the top 26, but placed second in the team race with 50 points. Summit’s fifth runner was 28th and the Storm scored 78 points to finish third.

Marshfield’s girls finished eighth in the team race with 242 points. Amber Reis was 47th and Jana Sadler 56th to lead the Pirates.

Class 3A-2A-1A Girls

Gold Beach freshman Sydney Snook made a strong debut at the state meet, finishing seventh in 19:41 and meeting her goal of placing in the top 10.

“I couldn’t be happier,” said Snook, who competed in the earliest race of the day, before a cold fog had completely lifted.

The cold weather and wet grass from overnight dew were a little factor, she said.

“My feet, halfway through the race, they started going numb,” she said. “I kept my mind off it.”

The result was a place on the podium for the medal presentation.

“I really wanted it,” Snook said.

Lakeview’s Ashley Baldovino, a regular in the Prefontaine Memorial Run each fall in Coos Bay, won the race in a time of 18:51. St. Mary’s edged Catlin Gabel for the team title by two points — 63 to 65 — ending Catlin Gabel’s three-year reign as state champions.

Bandon’s pack racing mentality was not quite good enough for a team trophy. The Tigers finished with 198 points, good for seventh place. Rachel Ledig placed 39th to lead Bandon.

Among individuals, Pacific freshman Wren Carter was 15th in her first state meet, while Coquille’s Emily Halsell was 34th in her fourth.

Class 3A-2A-1A Boys

Max Long of Oakridge, who won the district meet a week earlier at Tugman State Park, won his first state title, finishing in 16:18.

Union took the team title with the largest scoring margin of the day, finishing with 65 points to runner-up Oakridge’s 112.

Among South Coast runners in the race, Gold Beach’s Miles Bernadett-Peters had the best finish, taking 57th place, while Coquille’s Levi Dieu, the younger brother of past state championHolliDieu, was 64th.

Class 6A Boys

Central Catholic won for the third straight year, and fourth in five seasons, by placing five runners in the top 13.

Franklin’s Bryce Burgett took the individual title in 15:44, five seconds ahead of Central Catholic’s Taylor Morgan. Central Catholic finished with 32 points, while Jesuit was second with 67.

Class 6A Girls

Jesuit continued its recent dominance among girls teams by winning for the sixth straight season.

Michelle Dettmann of Centennial won the individual title in 18:15, beating the Jesuit duo of Adrienne McGuirk (18:19) and Noelle VanRysselber (18:21), but the Crusaders won with their depth, that included placing all five scoring runners in the first 17. Jesuit finished with 35 points, while St. Mary’s Academy had 63.