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Future is now for Maton, Camas boys cross country

Papermakers dominate 4A GSHL district meet

By Micah Rice, Columbian Sports Editor
Published: October 18, 2017, 8:36pm
4 Photos
Camas’ Jackson Lyne (29), left, Skyview’s Bruce Erickson (60) and Camas’ Daniel Maton (30) race down trail at Lewisville Park in Battle Ground, Wednesday October 18, 2017, during the boy’s 4A district cross country championships.
Camas’ Jackson Lyne (29), left, Skyview’s Bruce Erickson (60) and Camas’ Daniel Maton (30) race down trail at Lewisville Park in Battle Ground, Wednesday October 18, 2017, during the boy’s 4A district cross country championships. (Ariane Kunze/The Columbian) Photo Gallery

At the start of this cross country season, Camas coach Laurie Porter figured her boys team would be really good next year.

She’s no longer talking about next year.

Camas’ dominance at the 4A Greater St. Helens League district meet Wednesday showed why Porter is pleasantly surprised.

She now believes this year’s team, despite having just one senior among its top seven, could top last year’s fifth place finish at the state meet.

“I didn’t think we’d do as well as last year,” Porter said. “Honestly, I was looking at it like this would be a building year. Every race we’ve done has always been a pleasant surprise with how much they keep improving.”

Led by individual champ Daniel Maton, the Papermakers took the top four places at Lewisville Park to win with 17 points. Jackson Lyne, David Connell and Spencer Twyman all finished within 25 seconds of their teammate. LJ Floyd rounded out the Camas scorers in seventh place.

Maton, a junior who placed eighth in state last year, will be a top contender for the 4A state title on Nov. 4 in Pasco. Wednesday, he covered the 5,000 meter course in 16 minutes, 10 seconds.

After breaking 15 minutes Saturday at the George Fox Invitational, Maton ran Wednesday’s race as part of his final high-mileage week before the Westside Classic regional championships and state.

“I was training right through this race,” he said. “We just had a bunch of races where I had to back off a bit in order to run fast. This week I had my miles higher. Next week I’ll be a little more fresh.”

In 2015, Maton’s older brother Matthew became just the sixth U.S. high school runner to break four minutes in the mile.

After winning two state track titles in May, the Daniel Maton is well on his way to carving his own legacy.

“He’s so driven,” Porter said. “I hear him once in a while talk about his older brother and how he wants to beat his PR’s. That’s part of it, but he just loves running and he wants to win. He wants it desperately.”

After running 15:43 as a sophomore, Maton has run faster than 15:30 three times this season. He credits his teammates for his success this season.

“They’ve been training at a higher level than usual, so I said I should probably train at a higher level too,” he said. “It’s nice to have a couple of guys who are always there, even out of racing and out of sports.”

Wednesday, the top Camas runners stayed in a tight pack from the start. They stuck near Maton even as he began to surge halfway through the race.

Running close together is vital at large meets like state, where a large gap between teammates could worsen a team’s score considerably. Porter has been proud of how quickly the team has picked up “pack running.”

“At state, it’s going to be super important that they suffer for each other,” she said. “That’s what I saw them do today.”

11 Photos
Camas’ Jackson Lyne (29), left, Skyview’s Bruce Erickson (60) and Camas’ Daniel Maton (30) race down trail at Lewisville Park in Battle Ground, Wednesday October 18, 2017, during the boy’s 4A district cross country championships.
4A District Cross Country Championships at Lewisville Park Photo Gallery

For Maton and his teammates, the future can wait. The present is pretty bright.

“We want to win the team title for sure,” he said. “This is the best we’ve ever been, and I think we can get even better by state.”

RELATED STORY: Emma Jenkins defends district title in girls race.

4A GSHL DISTRICT MEET
At Lewisville Park; 5,000 meters
Team scores — Camas 17, Heritage 62, Skyview 74, Union 89, Battle Ground 106.
CAMAS — 1. Daniel Maton, 16:10; 2. Jackson Lyne, 16:25; 3. David Connell, 16:31; 4. Spencer Twyman, 16:35; 7. LJ Floyd, 17:12.
HERITAGE — 6. Ryan Cibart, 16:50; 8. Braedon Sitmann, 17:20; 13. Justin Southard, 17:32; 14. Kyle Bare, 17:36; 21. Kyler Spiller, 17:56.
SKYVIEW — 5. Bruce Erickson, 16:43; 9. Alex Miller, 17:25; 18. Vik Sahgal, 17:53; 19. Sean Flynn, 17:53; 23. Hunter Davenport, 18:13.
UNION — 12. Aaron Avery, 17:27; 15. Owen Murphy, 17:37; 16. Micah Goff, 17:51; 20. Andres Solorzano, 17:53; 28. Mikie Connell, 18:20.
BATTLE GROUND — 12. Kyle Ganoung, 17:28; 17. Matthew Palmateer, 17:52; 23. Eli Kissinger, 18:13; 26. Max Cunningham, 18:16; 27. Nate Copper, 18:18.

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