Jordan Monroe is enjoying life on a team this season at West Albany after learning to run on his ownJordan Monroe was pretty much his own coach last fall while running cross country. He was the only athlete competing in the sport at Powder Valley in North Powder a small town in eastern Oregon. One or two days a week. Monroe traveled to nearby Union where he ran with and competed with the team there a co-op allowed by the Oregon School Activities Association. He helped the Bobcats win in the small-school state title. Training by himself. Monroe said he learned to understand running a lot better. A year later. Monroe now a sophomore has helped West Albany become one of the best 5A teams while also placing himself among the best runners in the state. Saturday. Monroe and the Bulldogs will try to win the Mid-Willamette Conference district meet at Willamette Mission State Park north of Keizer. The varsity girls race opens the meet at 11 a m. with the varsity boys at 11:40.“I’d love to win. That’s my goal,” Monroe said. This past March the Monroe family moved to Albany when Pad Monroe. Jordan’s father took a job at South Pacific Auto Sales in south Albany. Jordan joined the West Albany track and field team several weeks into the season but still managed to finish fourth in the 3,000 meters and eighth in the 1,500 at the district meet. His season’s best times were near the top among all freshmen in the state.“He’s talented,” West cross country and track and field coach Craig Swanson said. “He got a lot better in just a month and a half.”But Monroe was a wrestler long before he became a runner. It was only by chance that he got interested in running and it all started after completing an eight-mile run during an intensive wrestling camp in Corvallis during the summer of 2007 before Monroe’s freshman year. He started near the back of a large pack in the endurance run but finished 10th. Powder Valley’s wrestling coach who attended the camp was soon on the phone with Union’s cross country coach with news of a prospective runner. Monroe planned to go out for football but was willing to give running a try. He turned out for the first day of cross country practice and hasn’t turned back.“Oh yeah. I like that a lot,” Monroe remembers telling his coach. “It was great. I had never ran more than a mile and a half,” besides the wrestling camp run. Fast forward to this fall when Monroe has the Mid-Willamette’s third-best time this fall close behind South Albany’s Antony Earley and Corvallis’ Brad Nelson. His time in the first race of the season was just 19 seconds off the time he ran at the state meet last year.“I’m like. ‘wow this is blowing me away,’” Monroe said. But he wasn’t done. He later set his personal best of 16:11 at the Brooks Harrier Classic at Bryant Park on Oct. 4. That PR came after he suffered a sprained left ankle for which he was still wearing a brace last week. But he says he’s healthy and ready to go. Saturday. Monroe will likely be joined in the lead pack by Earley. Nelson and Max Gorchels of Corvallis. Ben Condrea of Crescent Valley and Kody Coxen of Silverton. Earley is the favorite with the fastest time but it could be anybody’s race.“I think there’s a lot of good coaches and all of the guys are going to be ready for a good race,” Swanson said. “What it comes down to is who is feeling the best on that day.”The top two teams and the next four runners not on those teams qualify for the state meet held Nov. 1 at Lane Community College in Eugene. In the team race. Swanson said Corvallis and West (the Mid-Willamette dual meet champion) have been the most consistent. But Crescent Valley and South Albany could also challenge for the top two spots. West has reached its success with three first-year cross country runners in Josh Bewley. Jared Goar and Dylan Riggs.“You could kind of tell early in the season they had the makings of a competitive squad. I think they have fed off that,” Swanson said. South’s Jesse Anderson and Jose Contreras along with Earley are expected to compete for the four individual spots if the Rebels don’t qualify as a team. In the girls race. Corvallis and Crescent Valley are the clear favorites to take the team spots. West Albany’s Sophie Kaplan and Tiga Evans. South Albany’s Alyssa Swartzendruber and Lebanon’s Sierra Engler will be after one of the individual state qualifying berths.
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http://www.democratherald.com/articles/2008/10/26/sports/prep/3pre00_ccdistrict.txt
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