Gold Beach’s Sydney Snook ran to an easy win in the district championships Saturday at Bullards Beach State Park. World Photo by John Gunther.

BANDON — Gold Beach sophomore Sydney Snook cruised to her second straight district cross country championship and immediately turned her focus to this week’s state meet.

“I feel I can definitely place better (this year),” Snook said, hoping to improve on her seventh-place finish from last year’s Class 3A-2A-1A championships. “I want to go to Border Clash.”

Snook, who dominated most of the local races and placed well at several competitions against larger schools this fall, must finish fourth or better at the state meet to qualify for the all-star race featuring runners from Oregon and Washington.

Snook earned her trip to the state meet by winning the girls race Saturday at Bullards Beach State Park, while Rogue River’s Cole Watson was the champion among the boys. Watson led Rogue River to the team title, while Oakridge’s girls also were champions. Both Bandon teams finished second to also earn a berth to the state meet.

Snook was expected to be the champion Saturday, and she fought off an early challenge from McKenzie’s Sarah Hanchett before easily winning in a time of 19 minutes, 12 seconds for the 5,000-meter course.

“I had to do my first mile faster than usual,” Snook said, referring to her 5:45 opening pace. “I didn’t want her to get in front of me.”

Snook’s final time was three seconds slower than a race on the same course in September, but she attributed that to a stiff wind on an exposed part of the course close to the ocean.

Hanchett ended up second in 19:53 to earn a spot at state — the top four individuals not on the qualifying teams advance —and Pacific’s Wren Carter was third in 20:26. Oakridge runners Sierra Schorer-Noll and Emily Svendsen-McLean finished fourth and fifth, with Myrtle Point freshman Maegen Miranda sixth to earn the final spot at state.

Carter, a sophomore like Snook, will be competing at state for a second time — she finished 15th last year. Getting to state was a lot harder for her this year, though, because of persistent shin splints during the season.

“I think I did pretty good,” she said.

Oakridge finished just two points in front of Bandon in a tight team race. Megan Haueter edged teammate Samantha Sutherland in the race for seventh and eighth place to lead the Tigers.

Haueter said the team was relieved and excited to have a spot at the state meet.

“We weren’t as sure we were going to state this year as we were last year,” she said. “I’m excited. We had a lot of injured runners in the beginning — it all came together in the end.

“I think we all did really good.”

Haueter said she worked the entire race with Sutherland as they pushed toward top-eight finishes.

“She was ahead of me the whole race,” Haueter said. “She pulled me along.”

Katelynn Neis was 12th and Audrey Moss-Strong 15th for the Tigers. They will be joined at state by Rachel Ledig, the team leader from last year, who battled injuries all season, but easily won the junior varsity race in a time that would have placed her just behind Neis.

While Oakridge and Bandon were far in front of the other teams — third-place Myrtle Point was 49 points behind the Tigers — the boys team race was close.

Watson led Rogue River to the title by finishing the course in 16:36. The Chieftains scored 66 points, with Bandon second at 72 and Reedsport third at 74.

Brandon Lemerande led the Tigers with a 10th-place finish, and was followed by Isaac Taylor in 12th, Gerald Davis in 13th and Jared Watkins in 16th.

“I’m excited,” said Lemerande, whose team just missed a trip to state last year. “It’s a little redemption.

“It’s kind of disappointing we didn’t win, but (Rogue River) ran strong.”

The outcome of the team race wasn’t clear for a long time, because Reedsport also had a strong race.

The Braves, who tied Bandon for third last year, had by far the best fifth runner among the three teams, but didn’t have any firepower at the top of the lineup.

“The kids ran great,” said Reedsport coach Ron Frakes.

Alan Roy, Reedsport’s top runner, was 14th. He was followed by teammates Justin Halstead (17th), John Covey (18th), Duncan Law (21st) and Anthony Halstead (23rd). Anthony Halstead was 10 spots in front of Rogue Rivers’s fifth runner and 17 spots ahead of Bandon’s fifth.

Watson said the Chieftains were thrilled to take the team title their first year in the special district.

“We’ve been together since June,” he said. “We set a goal that we wanted to win districts and go to state.”

Watson won the Class 4A title in the 800 meters last spring, but won his first-ever district title in cross country or track and field on Saturday.

“I’m pretty happy,” he said.

Watson pulled away from McKenzie’s Michael Sherman over the final half-mile to win by 34 seconds.

“He’s pretty tough,” Watson said of Sherman. “He was pretty close the whole race.”

Sherman took one of the four at-large berths for state, along with teammate Stephen Norman, who was fourth; Tyson Tinnes of North Douglas, who placed fifth; and Gold Beach’s Miles Bernadett-Peters, who finished sixth.

Bernadett-Peters will compete at state for the second straight season.

“I’m pretty happy,” he said, adding that he placed well by maintaining a good pace.

“Everybody went out pretty hard,” he said.

Notes: The small schools run first in the state meet on Saturday at Lane Community College. The Class 3A-2A-1A girls race at 10 a.m., followed by the boys at 10:35. The Class 4A girls race at 11:25, with the boys at noon. Then there is a break until 1:15 p.m., when the Class 5A girls race, followed by the boys at 1:50. The final two races, for Class 6A, are at 2:35 (girls) and 3:10 (boys). Admission is $8 for adults and $5 for students and is good for all eight races.