Sams Valley Mini Marathon, An Annual Grade School 5K, Was A Launch Point For Crater High's Latest Distance Stars

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

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It is a rite of passage for every student in grades 4 and 5 who happen to attend elementary schools in Central Point's School District 6. 

The Sams Valley Mini Marathon is a 5-kilometer out-and-back fun run on a leafy country road that typically happens on Halloween Day. It's been happening for 50 years and for teachers in the schools, this annual half-day event comes at a welcome time. 

"It's the No. 1 antithesis of going out and gorging on candy," Mini Marathon organizer Mack Lewis said. "It's already a challenging day in the classrom, so this takes them out for half a day."

The district's five elementary schools and a charter school all take part. As many as 800 kids, bussed out of town to the starting line, don brightly colored T-shirts that designate which school they represent. 

Many of the kids walk, others jog, a few compete. 

Josiah Tostenson may be one of the very few who "trained' for it. In the summer  before fourth grade, Dave Tostenson told his son that no fourth grader had ever won the Mini Marathon before. 

Tostenson's older sister Gracie was a college runner at Boise State. He knew what running was, although it wasn't even close to his favorite sport. But with idea planted that he could do something special, Tostenson ran loops around his neighborhood. 

The year prior, a boy named Tyrone Gorze had won it. Tostenson's own brother, Jantz, had also won it. 

Josiah's big chance came in the fall of 2016. He not only won the race, he became the runner to break 20 minutes (19:29). And the next year, the Jewett Elementary School fifth grader, won it again in a record time of 18:34. 

Somewhere behind Tostenson was Tayvon Kitchen from Mae Richardson Elementary, eighth as a fourth grader, and fourth as a fifth grader. 

The Sams Valley Mini Marathon, now sponsored by a local orthodontist, is the oldest kids' only race in Oregon dating back to 1974. 

It is also a starting point for young runners who will grow up to attend the only high school in this town of 19,000 in Southern Oregon's Rogue Valley: Crater High. 

Somewhere in the crowd of young boys that gathered in 2016 and 2017, perhaps as they buzzed around the awards podium to receive their medals, Tostenson and Kitchen exchanged words.

"Mini Marathon was the first time I met him," Tostenson confirmed. "We talked a little bit."

Nine years later, as graduating seniors, the Crater duo can lay claim to being the fastest high school teammates in U.S. history. 

They have both broken four minutes in the mile. They have both run under eight minutes for 3,000 meters. 

This weekend, at New Balance Nationals Outdoor in Philadelphia, they are entered together in the 4xMile relay with two more teammates, and will try lower their best times in individual events. 

In late December of 2021, at an informal gathering of high school cross country coaches on the Oregon coast, Loftus stood up and posed a question:

"How is it possible that Newbury Park has the top four runners in the country? "

Loftus and the rest of the high school running world had followed along as Newbury Park CA, with the Young twins and the Sahlman brothers, built the greatest cross country team of all-time. 

At the Garmin RunningLane Championships in Alabama a few weeks prior, Colin Sahlman, Leo Young, Lex Young and Aaron Sahlman had finished 1-2-3-6 in the biggest cross counry event since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Even before the pandemic, Nico Young had been the Nike Cross Nationals champion in 2019. 

Loftus became acquainted with Newbury Park coach Sean Brosnan, studied what he was doing, asked questions. 

Crater had produced a string of runners that went on to compete at NCAA Division 1 schools. Nine Crater boys have run under 8:32 for 3,000 meters, and 12 have run under 4 minutes in the 1,500, since 2005.

Loftus, a Special Ed teacher at Scenic Middle School in Central Point, comes from the Bob Julian coaching tree. He had run for Julian at Ashland High in the 1990s and been on a team with two other future coaches: Pete Julian, now a professional coach for Nike, and Ian Soloff, the women's coach at the University of Portland. 

Loftus began to make some changes when Jantz Tostenson was in school, eager to test his limits and determined to compete for state titles with a standout runner a few miles south, E.J. Holland of Ashland. 

Holland, as a junior in 2019, had run 3:46.59 in he 1,500 meters at the Portland Track Festival and 8:50.29 for 2 miles at the Brooks PR Invitational. 

In one of the most memorable moments of the displaced 2019 Oregon state meet at Mt. Hood Community College (Hayward Field was under construction), Holland outlasted Tostenson in a rainy 3,000 meters, 8:13.10 to 8:15.01. Those were the Nos. 3 and 4 times in the U.S., behind Cole Sprout and Nico Young.

"It started with Jantz," Loftus said. "We changed things up with training and philosophy."

After Tostenson went off to Georgetown, the world soon came to a halt with the pandemic. 

Holland never got a chance to show what he could do in 2020, his senior year, and nearly all of Nico Young's season was wiped out, too. 

High school running was still regaining its footing in the spring of 2021, but some young talented boys were on the rise in Central Point, even if they didn't know it yet.

Sophomore Tyrone Gorze won the makeshift (non-OSAA) Oregon 5A state meet 1,500 in 3:50.88. 

Nike announced that it would hold outdoor nationals at the new Hayward Field in June.

Josiah Tostenson had no idea what that meet was, or why he should care about it.

"I didn't want to go to that meet," he said. "It was summer and I was ready to summer."

He went, he ran in he middle school mile, and he tore away from the best eighth grade boys in the country wearing a Mexico singlet, winning in a national middle school record time of 4:23.98. He won by nearly 10 seconds.

Also in that race: Benjamin Anderson, Keegan Smith, Nate Stadtlander, TJ Hansen, Thomas Latham and Robert Mechura.

On the awards podium, Tostenson brushed back his floppy hair and spoke into a microphone and told broadcasting legend Larry Rawson: "I want to be top ranked in the nation my senior year."

That was the day that Tostenson gave up all of his other sports, including basketball, his favorite. 

"I thought 'Dang, I'm pretty good,'" Tostenson said. "That's when I quit the other sports, quit skateboarding. That's when I locked in."

The aftermath wasn't easy in the Tostenson household. His parents got divorced. His father was diagnosed with Parkinson's Syndrome. 

Running goals, the prospect of getting college paid for, and his teammates, kept Tostenson from drifting away during a tough time.

Tyrone Gorze became the next big thing in Oregon high school running. Tostenson was a promising talent, to be sure, and Kitchen was beginning to pay attention but was nowhere on the national radar.

The three boys lived within a two and a half mile radius. 

"Tyrone took on a new personality with how driven he was," Loftus said. "My worry was, how can we keep this kid healthy? Increasing volume, intensity, whatever. Ty went through seven pairs of shoes in a season.

"That was the shift."

Tyrone caught the limelight first and elevated Crater into it. After years of being the odd team out at Nike Cross Northwest, Gorze led the Comets to their first NXN appearance in 2022. Gorze finished third in the national meet, behind Aaron Sahlman and Daniel Simmons. 

Sophomores Josiah Tostenson and Tayvon Kitchen were 42nd and 94th, respectively. The team, Southern Oregon, finished fourth. Newbury Park won it. 

In the spring of 2023, Gorze was the star. Tostenson and Kitchen were running with him, their ambitions were growing, but it was far from certain that either would ever achieve what Gorze did: 8:39.61 for 2 miles, breaking Steve Prefontaine's Oregon high school record; 13:45.81 in the 5,000, No. 7 all-time; 29;00.17 in the 10,000, No. 3 all-time. 

"Tyrone would crush paces," Loftus said. "He'd want to get every work out done, no wasted time. Josiah and Tayvon watched and learned. They're all super-driven."

The same night that Gorze wore Rudy Chapa's 1976 Hammond, Indiana singlet in that 10,000 at the Portland Track Festival, Kitchen ran 14:56.22 in the 5,000. 

It was a breakthrough that would spur Kitchen to begin grinding over the summer. 

"Freshman year, (Tayvon) said he wanted to be good. Sophomore year he was tagging along with me and Tyrone," Tostenson said. "Junior year he was able to train with me. I needed someone to train with Tayvon was the perfect guy. It shows what you can do in one summer. I witnessed it real quick."

Kitchen's rise seemed to point to more going on than the rare statistical convergence of generational talents living in the same neighborhood. 

"Anyone can get to that level. You just have to want it," Tostenson said. "If you need a coach to get you here, Loftus is that guy."

Kitchen won the the Oregon 5A cross country titles in 2023 and 2024.  

It hasn't always been smooth sailing. Tostenson got sick at the end of last fall's cross country season, killing the team's chances of returning to NXN for a third straight year and his own chances to finish high at a national event. 

But since January, the pair has been rolling. 

Kitchen ran the fastest 3,000 meters of all-time at the Husky Classic in February when he ran 7:55.48 and Tostenson ran 7:57.42 in the same race. 

Then they took a chance and flew to Boston to race in a mile and they both ran sub-four. 

In March, they traveled to The TEN in California and Tostenson ran 3:40.06 in the 1,500, Kitchen 3:41.62, 

Kitchen pushed himself to 8:33.82 in the 3,200 at the Nike/Jesuit Twilight Relays in April. Then he delivered one of the greatest performances in state meet history in May when he ran a solo effort 7:58.92 3,000 meters. 

Tostenson ran to a second-place finish at the HOKA Festival of Miles in 3:59.00, an Oregon outdoor record. And last Sunday at the Portland Track Festival, he finished just behind future Washington teammate Owen Powell in the men's 1,500 meters in No. 3 all-time 3:36.85.

Even Loftus has a hard time putting this level of high school running into perspective. 

"It's hard because I'm still in it," he said. "When I talked to (coach) Brosnan, he said when guys are doing this stuff and it's crazy, it's because they just start believing and you can lay out anyhing for them and they're ready to go."

Loftus reflects back on last year's Nike Outdoor Nationals/USATF U20 meet, where Kitchen ran two 5,000-meter races on the same day. 

Two days prior, Kitchen had accidentally stepped on a pencil, the point of which tore a hole in the bottom of his foot. 

"It went into his foot probably a quarter of an inch," Loftus said.

Not only did Kitchen run the 5,000s, one year ago this week, he got on a plane and helped Tostenson and his other teammates break the national record in the distance medley relay in Philadelphia. 

This spring, the synergy is real. No matter what happens this weekend at New Balance Nationals, Tostenson and Kitchen have made history together. 

Tostenson will enroll at Washington in the fall where he will be reunited on a roster with Gorze. Kitchen is headed to BYU.

"They would both run through a brick wall and fall down and then get up and keep going," Loftus said. 

At least some of the fourth and fifth graders in Central Point, who will step onto a bus and go out to run or walk at the Sams Valley Mini Marathon next fall, know whose footsteps they are following. 

 Josiah was there. And so was Tayvon. 

"We take some pride in the fact that we introduce a whole lot of kids to the idea of running as a race," Lewis said. "These kids are growing up in a community that is run-oriented."

Loftus doesn't miss an opportunity. The Crater High runners also attend the Mini Marathon and serve as monitors. Their presence lets the grade school kids know there is a place for them when they reach high school. 

"The Mini Marathon is definitely beneficial. It fosters some interest," Loftus said. 

The origins of the Josiah and Tayvon story are wound together by grade-school memories of chugging up that country road.