Cross country

Lincoln cross country sweeps PIL team titles, Kai Jensen, Ellery Lincoln individual champions

Austin White

30 Oct 2025 — 6 min read

The Lincoln girls cross country team takes off at the 2025 PIL district championship race Oct. 29 at Lents Park. (Photo by Austin White)

LENTS – Even if it's a rebuilding year, Lincoln High School girls cross country didn’t look the part Wednesday, Oct. 29.

Racing at Lents Park in the PIL district championships, the Cardinals walked away with the team title once again.

Leading the charge was junior Ellery Lincoln, who's put together a fully healthy season and will be one of the favorites to win the individual state title next week on Nov. 8 at Lane Community College in Eugene.

But Wednesday was all about the team getting it done and earning a spot as a whole at state to try and defend last season's state title.

“We just came in and we wanted to take care of business. The plan was to go out with the pack and chip away at it each lap,” Ellery Lincoln said. “It's great confidence for the team going into state. I'm super proud of the whole team, felt like everyone executed really well today.”

Runners compete at the PIL district meet Oct. 29, 2025, at Lents Park. (Photos by Austin White)

Ellery Lincoln crossed the line in 17 minutes, 25.21 seconds to take first. Senior teammate and Northwestern-commit Elyse Henriksen wasn't far behind in second at 17:59.56.

Senior Claire Tagalog was next in fifth at 19:11.57, and freshman Matilda Hof took seventh in a new personal-record time of 19:24.43. Rounding out the scoring was sophomore Julia Olivares in 13th at 19:47.05.

The team finished with 28 points, besting Franklin in second with 46 and Ida B. Wells in third with 59.

“The thing about (Henriksen) is she's going to step to that line every time,” Lincoln head coach Eric Dettman said. “Those other kids follow suit. Matilda Hof today, wow what a breakout for her in a big way. (Tagalog) is a little under the weather, but she did what she did. We got a lot of kids who want to run for each other, and that's really special.”

Lincoln also took home the title on the boys side with 35 points, edging out Wells in second with 50 points and Franklin in third with 74.

Winning the individual race was Cleveland senior Kai Jensen in a time of 15:49.45.

“I felt really good at the start of this, I think I timed my peak well,” Jensen said. “It was really tactical, we went out at 17 flat pace for the 5K, but at 3K to go we started picking it up and in the last lap I was in a pack of four with my teammate Grant (Breger). With probably a K to go I just split and I got as much of a gap from those guys as possible, and they didn't get me.”

For the Cardinals, their top finisher was junior Malcolm Dimoff in second at 15:50.80, followed by junior Peter James in fifth at 15:53.29. Senior Joshua Prince was next in seventh at 15:54.82, junior Jack Denton took ninth at 15:57.24 and wrapping up the scoring was sophomore Seth Kugel in 12th at 16:02.86.

Winning the meet was a welcomed sight for Dettman and the team after the lull of the long season started to show at some recent races for the boys.

“We say it a lot, ‘The greatest thing in life is not never having fallen, but in rising up again,’ and that's something my high school coach used to say,” Dettman said. “I think they really rallied around that idea and they really rallied around each other. It was cool to see them go out and do what they did today.”

The top two teams on each side earn an automatic spot at state for the whole team while the rest still have a chance to earn one of four at-large spots that are determined by an OSAA committee.

Any individual who placed in the top 14 and isn't on a state qualifying team will also get the invite to Eugene next week.

That means both of Lincoln’s full squads will head to Eugene next weekend, along with Wells on the boys side and Franklin on the girls side. The rest will hope for an at-large bid.

For the Lincoln girls, the season has been about some new faces stepping into varsity roles. But after a strong regular season of growth, the Cardinals aren't putting a repeat as state champions out of the picture.

“We still got some big goals and we still got some things we want to accomplish, and the kids have bought into that idea,” Dettman said. “We’re rewriting a different story, and this one is going to be just as special.”