Brandon Pollard of Sisters finished 10th in the Class 4A boys cross-country state championship race with a time of 16:38 on Saturday at Eugene's Lane Community College.

EUGENE — This was not the most memorable season for Brandon Pollard.

Midway through the cross-country schedule, the Sisters High senior injured his right Achilles tendon. After a month’s absence from competition, he sprained his left ankle on his first day back. This past Tuesday, he re-aggravated that same ankle.

Plagued with injuries, Pollard’s season could have been one to forget. Then, the state meet made up for everything.

Just a few days after having his ankle massaged, and donning special compression socks, Pollard on Saturday matched his season-best time of 16 minutes, 38 seconds over 5,000 meters to take 10th overall at the Class 4A boys state championships.

His performance on a cool day that saw intermittent showers at Lane Community College marked the best state finish of his high school career.

“Just running felt amazing,” Pollard said following the race. “After all the injuries I’ve been through, mainly right now, I was just thankful to race at state in my last year. I was just really thankful to race.”

Pollard’s effort paced the Outlaws to 205 points and a seventh-place team finish.

Devon Calvin was 44th for Sisters with a time of 17:43, Shea Krevi took 61st in the 105-runner field, and Caleb Johnson was 65th with a season-best time of 18:11.

Winning his first state championship was Siuslaw senior Mitchell Butler, whose time of 15:37 edged teammate Mack Marbas — last year’s champion — by four seconds.

“It’s kind of unbelievable,” said Butler, who took third at state as a sophomore and second in 2012. “I’ve been close all four years, and to finally seal the deal on the track (where the race was finished) was very exciting.”

After back-to-back 12th-place finishes as a team in 2011 and 2012, Crook County took 10th Saturday with 234 points thanks to Nathan Carmack’s 25th-place showing with a time of 17:14. Grayson Munn (the winner at last week’s Greater Oregon League championships) was 46th, and Liam Pickhardt took 48th.

La Salle, from Milwaukie, took the team title with 54 points, followed by Siuslaw’s 89 points.

Also from Central Oregon, James Seeley, Ridgeview’s lone runner in the boys race, finished in 36th in 17:28.

“Jimi Seeley, very gutsy race,” Ravens coach John Albrecht said. “He got up this morning, wasn’t feeling good at all, and runs in the 17:20s. He ran really gutsy. Just gutting it out and finishing strong in his last race.”

La Pine’s Tyress TurnsPlenty, who was 73rd at state last year, took 55th overall.

Saturday’s state meet was Brandon Pollard’s final race for Sisters, and he went out in style.

“I’m just really thankful,” said Pollard, who was 14th at last year’s state championships and 17th in 2011. “The whole time, throughout the entire race, all I thought about was, ‘I’m not letting this guy pass me.’ I was ranked 25th coming into the race with terrible times from the season. As long as I was able to pick up 15 or so people, then I was able to (finish strong).”

In the girls race, Shaylen Crook became the first girl in Marshfield history — and third Marshfield runner ever, along with Jared Bassett and Steve Prefontaine — to win a state cross-country title, finishing the 5,000-meter course in 18:28 and 31 seconds ahead of runner-up Emily Bever of Molalla.

“I realized that I wasn’t rising to my full potential my freshman and sophomore years,” Crook said. “I knew that I could be better, so I just pushed harder and harder and it got me this far.”

Sisters improved on its seventh-place showing of last year, taking fifth on Saturday with 164 points. Zoe Falk placed 22nd to pace the Outlaws, followed by Aria Blumm in 38th, Macadia Calavan in 42nd and Mary Stewart in 44th.

With three top-10 finishes, Molalla captured the girls team title with 50 points.

Ridgeview’s Dakota Steen, the only Raven returner from last season’s state-qualifying team, recorded the top finish for Central Oregon runners. The senior was 13th overall after taking 10th at last year’s state meet.

Steen had targeted the top 10 heading into the race, according to Albrecht. While that goal was not met, Steen did improve her time from the 2012 state championship.

“Every Ridgeview runner that ran today, in my opinion, has reason to celebrate,” Albrecht said. “At practice on Monday, every single one of my runners were still sore from the hills they had to run in Milton-Freewater (at last week’s Greater Oregon League district championships). So how we would have normally prepared for this meet, we had to change. We had to do some things differently to try to get rid of some soreness but stay tuned up.

“For Dakota to come here, run under 20 minutes and not tank, I’m just delighted,” Albrecht continued. “She’s happy. She was not upset at all that she didn’t finish in the top five or the top 10. Even though that’s what she wanted, she knew she did her best.”

The Ravens finished 12th in the team standings with 285 points, as Alyssa Shaffer and Makenzie Whitney placed 62nd and 63rd, respectively.

Maggie Kasberger, Crook County’s lone runner in the girls race, was 51st in 21:41, a season-best time for the freshman.