Marshfield High School graduate Jared Bassett crosses the finish line in first place in the Prefontaine Memorial Run on Saturday. Bassett won in the 10K run for the men, while Finnish exchange runner Minna Kainlauri took the honors on the women’s side. World Photo by Lou Sennick.

Jared Bassett is no newcomer to the Prefontaine Memorial Run.

He was a regular in the 10-kilometer race as a high school runner for Marshfield. But he never went all-out in the event because it came during the high school season and he didn’t want to risk injury or hamper his chances of competing well in the meets that mattered for Marshfield.

Bassett is done with high school now, and returned to Coos Bay as a University of Portland freshman on Saturday for the 29th version of the race honoring the late Steve Prefontaine.

This time, Bassett didn’t hold back, and after he made a bold move on the climb up Agony Hill in the fifth mile of the race, Bassett was alone in first. A few minutes later, he was crossing the finish line, the first local champion in the event since Matt Messner, another former Marshfield standout, won back-to-back titles in 1993 and 1994.

Bassett’s time was 32 minutes and 28 seconds, 21 seconds better than Jesus Solis, a runner for Humboldt State University in California.

“I’m pretty excited,” said Bassett, who is red-shirting for the Pilots this season, and improved more than 2 minutes from his time last year, when he placed 14th as a Marshfield senior.

Minna Kainlauri, the final runner from Finland to come to Coos Bay as part of an exchange program between the Prefontaine Memorial Run and the Lasse Viren Run in that country, was the women’s champion, finishing 45th overall in 38:27.

“I’m happy with that,” said Kainlauri, who didn’t mind the many hills on the course, one of Prefontaine’s favorite training routes when he was a Marshfield student.

“The course was quite heavy — up and down and up and down,” Kainlauri said. “But I like that kind of race. You need power with your legs. It’s not like running on the track.”

It was on the hills where Bassett stood out.

“I kind of used the first half of the race to see how I felt,” he said. “This was my first race of the season.”

Bassett said he didn’t think he was working hard in the beginning, but found himself out front after a 5:28 opening mile.

“I wasn’t going that fast,” he said.

About the 2-mile mark, he was joined in front by Solis and Phoenix High School senior Elliot Jantzer. They ran together for another mile.

“At the turnaround, the Humboldt guy took off,” he said of Solis.

But Bassett was patient, and then surged past Solis about halfway up Agony Hill, “right where it starts getting steep.”

After cresting the hill, Bassett kept pressing the pace.

“I pushed it down the hill to try to stretch the lead,” he said.

Solis finished in 32:49 and Jantzer was third in 32:52.

While Bassett is believed to be just the second South Coast runner to be crowned overall winn, at least five South Coast runners have taken the women’s championship.

High school students Megan Hibner of North Bend and Amy Nickerson of Coquille won titles in 2004 and 1997, respectively, while Marshfield graduates Kristy Johnston and Stephanie Wessell were champions in 1989 and 1990, after they had finished high school. Lisa Czech of Coquille won in 1987.

Kainlauri realized she was the first woman during the race Saturday.

“I didn’t see any women,” she said. “I didn’t know how far (back) the others were.”

As it turned out, she had a comfortable margin.

Jill Pettibone of Roseburg finished second in 39:22.

The top female finisher from the South Coast was Southwestern Oregon Community College student Francesca Frasier of Coquille, who was ninth in 42:45. Gold Beach sophomore Sydney Snook was second among high school girls in 43:40.

The Hidden Valley boys and Roseburg girls were the high school team champions.

Hidden Valley had its top five runners cross the line basically together in 11th through 15th place among high school runners to score 50 points, which was nine better than Hillsboro.

The top local finisher was North Bend’s Dan Flora, 22nd among high school boys.

Roseburg, led by individual girls champion Bryanna Oelrich, scored 21 points to easily beat runner-up St. Mary’s, which finished with 65.

In all, 25 high schools were represented in the race.

Humboldt State dominated the college team races, with Southwestern the only other official college team.

The Humboldt State men had 10 of the top 14 finishers overall. The first Southwestern runner, Steven Sanders, finished in 38:03, 39th overall. Coquille graduate Levi Dieu, who runs for Northwest Christian College, was 23rd in 36:58.

Humboldt State’s women had four finishers before Frasier crossed the line, led by Amanda Garcia, who was third overall and set an unofficial college team record with her time of 40:42.

A total of 1,021 runners and walkers finished the 10,000-meter race, a new record. The previous best was last year, when 966 people finished the race.

Notes: Kainlauri, who arrived in town Thursday night, will be in the area this week, seeing local attractions with various area residents. She said she’s been struck by the people on the South Coast. “It has been very nice to be here,” she said. “People are so friendly.”