Great Oak looks to build on wins at Pre-Nats

By Doug Binder
DyeStat Editor

PORTLAND -- Before the Great Oak varsity sevens ever ventured near the starting line at Portland Meadows on Saturday, word had spread of another victory.

Hours earlier, at the Dana Hills Invitational (think massive California meet every bit as big as Nike Pre-Nationals), the Great Oak 'B' team girls won the team title.

"That group of girls is a really talented group and they want to crack that top seven, so they are to go out and prove themselves," Great Oak coach Doug Soles said. "Just to see them running up with great kids like Amanda Gehrich, was like 'Wow.' ... Seeing that performance was really inspiring for our program up here (at Portland)."

Then, Great Oak showed why they are so highly touted in California and nationally. The boys went 2-3 up front with Isaac Cortes and Spencer Dodds behind winner Tristan Peloquin of Gig Harbor. The Wolfpack boys scored 63 points. And Destiny Collins moved effortlessly through the course and ran a meet record 17:09.9 to lead the girls to the win with 71 points.

Truth be told, it wasn't Great Oak's greatest performance of the year, especially on the girls side. Collins and other members of the team were fighting off a cold and ran through it.

And Nick Doan, perhaps Great Oak's biggest talent on the boys side, is still a little behind his teammates in terms of overall fitness.

But if the mission for Great Oak was to get something positive done in Portland, then mission accomplished.

"The boys had a great race today," Soles said. "I'd say that's the best race they've ever run (as a group). Isaac Cortes and Spencer Dodds going 2-3, that's a little better than I thought they'd run."

Peloquin came to Nike Pre-nats hoping to match up with Summit OR senior Matthew Maton, but the DyeStat US#2 is taking a different appraoch this fall. Maton is strictly training-only until some time in October.

Still, Peloquin ran with the confidence of someone who has been in big races and performed well here before. Peloquin was part of Gig Harbor's run to the NXN title in 2013. He broke away in the second half of the race and won in 15:16.

"I'm really happy with it," Peloquin said. "I knew there was going to be some good competition with California coming up here and some really strong guys from Oregon and Washington teams. I'm happy to get the win and run fast and that was the goal, and now I'll get back to training."

Behind Great Oak's boys, Tahoma WA was next with 165 points, Summit was third with 168 and Gig Harbor was fourth with 190. Preseason US#4 Central Catholic has been roughed up a bit in the past couple weeks and has had some sickness going around. The Rams, of Portland, were seventh.

On the girls side, Desert Vista (116) was runner-up to Great Oak. Palos Verdes CA was third and Summit was fourth.