PREP South's Maiorano goes wire-to-wire to win opener

Mar. 4—JACKSONVILLE — Despite never running a home meet at Jacksonville Forest Park before, Michael Maiorano handled it about as well as he could have planned for.

The South Medford junior, one of the top runners in the Southwest Conference last season, began the abbreviated spring season with a wire-to-wire victory in a dual meet against Roseburg on Wednesday afternoon.

Maiorano finished with a time of 17 minutes, 47 seconds to lead the way for the Panther boys, who cruised to a win over the Indians.

"Forest Park is a beautiful place to run, but also a difficult cross-country course," South Medford head coach Josh Wallace said. "I thought Michael handled it well. The course, you're either going uphill or you're going downhill. We talked about using the downhill part where you have better footing to pick up the pace. Going uphill, he's gotten a lot stronger since he was a freshman, so you can see that strength coming through. With his experience, he's great with running by feel and how to execute a great race plan."

The Roseburg girls were victorious in the other half of the meet, capturing 22 points to South's 34.

Like Maiorano, Roseburg's Eliza Eckman never trailed as she got the win in the girls race, recording a time of 23:09.

South's Emily Nash finished in second place behind Eckman at 23:30. Fellow South senior Emma Schmerbach was fourth after running a time of 24:29.

"Emily Nash, I thought she ran really well," Wallace said. "My perception was that she ran negative split race, which was impressive, and she looked strong the whole time.'

The South boys had five of the top six finishers in Wednesday's race. Connor Singer (18:18) came in second behind Maiorano, while Connor Williams (19:44) was third and Case Wallace (19:59) was fourth. Ephraim Webber was Roseburg's top finisher on the boys side with a time of 20:26.

"It was great to see the athletes racing — that was the biggest thing for me," Wallace said. "A lot of them have been training since June or July. We're just grateful to (Roseburg head coach Nathan Eckman) for coming down and having the chance to race again."

Boys

TEAM SCORES: South Medford 16, Roseburg 45

INDIVIDUAL RESULTS (Top 15): 1, Michael Maiorano, SM, 17:47; 2, Connor Singer, SM, 18:18; 3, Connor Williams, SM, 19:44; 4, Chase Wallace, SM, 19:59; 5, Ephraim Webber, R, 20:26; 6, DJ Scott, SM, 21:18; 7, Gabe Simmons, R, 21:52; 8, Isaac Black, SM, 21:57; 9, Tyson Palodichuk, SM, 22:36; 10, Brian Powell, R, 22:58; 11, Hyrum McGinnis, 23:02; 12, Boaz Brown, SM, 23:03.2; 13, Dominic Colvin, R, 23:03.6; 14; Craig Ortega, R, 23:37; 15, Quinn Hall, SM, 23:45.

Girls

TEAM SCORES: Roseburg 22, South Medford 34

INDIVIDUAL RESULTS (Top 15): 1, Eliza Eckman, R, 23:09; 2, Emily Nash, SM, 23:30; 3, Charis Childers, R, 23:50; 4, Emma Schmerbach, SM, 24:29; 5, Corinne Childers, R, 24:35; 6, Miriam Childers, R, 25:46; 7, Zoe Traul, R, 25:53; 8, Abigail Shuldberg, SM, 26:08; 9, Rachel Parks, SM, 26:49; 10, Trinity Minyard, R, 28:28; 11, Jasmine Lopez, SM, 30:23; 12, Hannah Beers, SM, 30:52; 13, Stephanie Way, R, 32:54; 14, Mylie Fox, R, 32:58; 15, Ella Miller, R, 33:25.

ASHLAND, NORTH SPLIT DUAL: Ashland seniors Cameron Stein and Reed Pryor finished a close 1-2 to lead the Grizzly boys to a win over North Medford in a dual meet at Bowerman Field.

Ashland won the boys meet with 17 points, while North Medford had 45. The Grizzlies had seven of the top 10 finishers in the boys race.

North, however, edged Ashland in the girls meet by a four-point margin.

Stein edged teammate Pryor by four-tenths of a second, winning the boys race in 17 minutes, 6.21 seconds. Pryor was an extremely close second at 17:06.64.

Nathan Stein (17:30.15) finished third, while North Medford's Grant Lulich (17:54.67) was the top Black Tornado runner after he finished fourth. The Grizzlies' Luke Seeley (18:18.32) was fifth.

Ashland's Grace Yaconelli won the girls race with a time of 20:23.26. North had three of the next four finishers with Saundra Parsons (21:39.81), Cammeo Ramirez (21:54.18) and Reese Meager (21:58.68). The Grizzlies' Sage Reddish rounded out the top five with a time of 22:02.90.

Boys

TEAM SCORES: Ashland 17, North Medford 45.

INDIVIDUAL RESULTS (Top 15): 1, Cameron Stein, Ash, 17:06.21; 2, Reed Pryor, Ash, 17:06.64; 3, Nathan Stein, Ash, 17:30.15; 4, Grant Lulich, NM, 17:54.67; 5, Luke Seeley, Ash, 18:18.32; 6, Ellis Pryor, Ash, 18:23.39; 7, Vincent Senn, Ash, 18:29.39; 8, Jace Clark, NM, 19:11.51; 9, Jordan Kemper, Ash, 19:33.47; 10, Jimmy Scull, NM, 19:39.00; 11, Trent Wayman, NM, 20:08.96; 12, Alec Winters, NM, 20:54.80; 13, Shane Stout, NM, 21:02.79; 14, Jace Garibay, NM, 22:00.77; 15, Canyon Lowes, Ash, 22:32.57.

Girls

TEAM SCORES: North Medford 26, Ashland 30

INDIVIDUAL RESULTS (Top 15): 1, Grace Yaconelli, Ash, 20:23.26; 2, Saundra Parsons, NM, 21:39.81; 3, Cammeo Ramirez, NM, 21:54.18; 4, Reese Meager, NM, 21:58.68; 5, Sage Reddish, Ash, 22:02.90; 6, Eleanor Nichol, NM, 22:11.52; 7, Milan Hague, Ash, 22:42.12; 8, Annika Wells, Ash, 22:50.19; 9, Stella Mason, Ash, 23:41.94; 10, Violet Hering, Ash, 23:50.34; 11, Julia Clark, NM, 24:31.50; 12, Juliana Scull, NM, 25:57.90; 13, Ava Telford, NM, 27:31.23; 15, Mary Cropper, Ash, 33:26.61.

Boys Soccer

PHOENIX 8, KLAMATH UNION 0: At Klamath Falls, Phoenix junior Victor Martinez powered home four goals and a third goal by fellow junior Caden Gallegos put an end to the match early by virtue of an eight-goal mercy rule put in place this season due to COVID-19 protocols.

Johnny Reyes, a junior midfielder, also netted a goal for the Pirates, who started out a little slow but came on like gangbusters after opening the scoring in the 10th minute.

Gallegos' final goal came with 13 minutes to play in the match.

Junior goalkeeper Tucker Speaks was not tested too much thanks to Phoenix's ability to control the ball but did register two saves.

CASCADE CHRISTIAN 9, RV ADVENTIST 1: Jonny McCoy and Levi Sciapiti each tallied four goals and Levi Marincus tacked on another as Cascade Christian rolled to a season-opening victory at U.S. Cellular Community Park.

McCoy highlighted the match with a 50-yard direct kick for one of his goals, sailing a perfectly placed shot over the back line and into the net to take Rogue Valley Adventist by surprise.

Two of Sciapiti's goals came off headers for the Challengers, while Marincus used quick footwork to carry the ball into the box and finesse a shot past the goalie.

Rogue Valley Adventist struck on a nice header off a corner kick in the 25th minute to trim the deficit to 5-1. It was the lone goal allowed by Cascade Christian's Dylan Westlake, who made five saves.

Girls Soccer

ST. MARY'S 8, ILLINOIS VALLEY 0: At Grants Pass, St. Mary's freshman Elise Fernandes opened the scoring in the third minute and freshman Samantha Gallardo added what would be the game-ending goal in the 44th minute in a game halted early due to an eight-goal mercy rule put in place this season due to COVID-19 protocols at the Josephine County Fairgrounds.

The teams played with eight players on each side since that was the total Illinois Valley had available for the contest.

Ainsley Gibbs had two goals and one assist, Sophia Dobry added four assists and one goal and Morgan Dole had one goal and one assist. Sofia Castillo also scored, while Sara Hatfield and Sadie Glaser each had an assist.

Volleyball

MAZAMA 3, PHOENIX 0: At Klamath Falls, Mazama scored a 26-24, 25-19, 25-21 victory over a game Phoenix squad that had only two practices before the match.

Middle blocker Josie Bolstad paced the Pirates with 12 kills and four blocks, and setter Ally Ellis had 22 assists. Libero Raelyssa Goff was 12 of 13 serving and produced 25 digs, and Kylie Linnell had two aces.

ST. MARY'S 3, LAKEVIEW 0: Sisters Kelsey Dunn and Ainsley Dunn combined for 15 kills to lead the St. Mary's attack in a season-opening straight-set win over Lakeview, 25-22, 25-19, 25-21.

Kelsey Dunn, a sophomore, finished with a team-high nine kills and a pair of blocks in the match, while senior sister Ainsley recorded six kills.

St. Mary's sophomore setter Kaitlyn Hansen had 20 assists.

Freshman Emma Johnston and sophomore libero Albie Borovansky provided the defensive cover for the Crusaders (1-0). Johnston finished with 11 digs and added four kills, while Borovansky had 10 digs.

As a team, the Crusaders finished with 14 aces.