After placing 10^th at the state meet last year, the women's cross country team achieved their goal of placing ninth or better at this year's OSAA 5A State Championships in Eugene Nov. 1.

"We wanted to get ninth, and we did," sophomore Katie Warberg said. "We were really happy about that."

Warberg completed the 5K race in 20:16.3, 1:44.8 and 33 places behind Kellie Foley, the first place finisher from Crook County. The other Cleveland runners finished between the 51^st and 98^th places, respectively, with only a 2:28.2 spread between them.

"State was awesome," Coach Olivia Poblacion said. "It was a great day."

Cleveland finished the meet with 247 points, 222 points behind first place Summit High School. The only other Portland Interscholastic League school at the 5A meet was Madison High School, who finished 12^th out of 12 with 297 points.

Prior to the state meet, the Cleveland women competed at the 5A and 6A PIL district championships, held Oct. 22 at Grant Park. This event yielded a first place district win for the Cleveland women.

"Our team did really well," Sophomore Aislyn Booth said. "It was a fun race, and I think most of the people on our team PR’ed (set a new Personal Record)."

Though the first place spot for the 5A runners was snagged by Ally Shackelford, a junior from Madison, Cleveland grabbed the second, third, and fourth place finishes. Cleveland's top runner, sophomore Katie Warberg, finished in 20:29.88, 13.26 seconds off Ally Shackelford, and 2:45.23 behind the top finisher in both 5A and 6A, Lincoln senior Betsy Kolberg. Sophomore Sarah Scrivens and junior Kara Batdorf finished 1:07.32 and 1:34.43 behind Shackelford, respectively.

The state meet marked the end of an era for Coach Poblacion. After nine years of involvement in the Cleveland cross country program, first as an athlete, and then as a coach, she is finally calling it quits. Though she's unsure whether she will ever go back to coaching, Poblacion said that overall, she's very pleased with her final season with the Warriors.

"I'm really, really happy with this past season. It was a bit inconsistent with all of the injuries, but the girls worked hard to get healthy, and I think that in the end they did very well."