JOHN DAY — The Grant Union cross country team welcomed five other teams to the Seventh Street Sports Complex on Thursday, Oct. 26, for the Gold Rush Run, which was their final outing before the 3A/2A/1A-Special District 3 Championships at Pendleton Community Park.

Crook County led the field in the boys 5,000-meter race, finishing with 28 points. Second-place Burns finished with 59 points, and Heppner left the meet in third place with 77 points. The Prospectors finished the day in sixth place with 136 team points.

Junior Logan Randleas was the highest individual finisher among the Grant Union boys, finishing 27th of 64 runners with a time of 21:22.0. Landon Boyd was 30th with a time of 21:27.6 and Landon James came in 39th with a time of 22:05.2 to round out the top three boys finishers for the Pros.

Heppner led the pack on the girls side, finishing with 40 team points. Crook County wasn’t far behind, finishing second with a score of 45. Burns finished third with 66 team points. The Lady Pros finished fifth with 116 team points.

Grant Union freshman Eliza Bailey was the top individual finisher among all Grant Union runners, finishing eighth out of 42 competitors with a time of 23:09.0. Maddie Bailey finished 21st with a time of 25:43.4, and Abbie Justice was the third-best finisher for the Lady Pros, finishing 30th with a time of 28:36.6.

Younger runners also gave the sport of cross country a try at the Gold Rush Run, with a separate 3,000-meter middle school race and a 1,600-meter race for elementary school kids.

Grant Union seventh grader Riggin Dowdy won the boys middle school race with a time of 12:20.01, and eighth grader Adie Judd won the girls race with a time of 13:13.1.

Third grader Weston Lieuallen was the top finisher among the boys in the elementary school race, finishing with a time of 6:51.7. Top time in the girls race was claimed by Cleo McKnab, who finished in 8:17.2.

Grant Union head cross country coach Sonna Smith said she’s taking a full boys and girls team to the district meet, but the level of competition within the district poses a challenge.

“We have the toughest district in the state,” she said. “Girls have 26 teams in their district and have to finish first or second as a team to make it to state. … The boys have 18 teams in their district with the same qualification standards for state.

“Our hope is for all of our athletes to set a personal best time on the course, with an outside chance of maybe qualifying an individual for state,” she added.

The Grant Union cross country squad will have a little more than a week to get ready for the district championship race, which starts on Friday, Oct. 27, in Pendleton. 2A and 1A boys will start at 2 p.m., with 1A/2A/3A girls starting at 2:30 p.m.

The 3A boys will start at 3:15 p.m., with awards for the top 10 individual placers handed out immediately after the last race.