Caldera's Maddie Carney pushes tho the finish line in winning the Crater Twilight Invite girls race in Central Point Thursday evening.

Crater distance running standouts Josiah Tostenson and Tayvon Kitchen don’t need much of a spotlight in order to shine on the track, but the seniors always seem to welcome it and rise to the occasion.

A pair of national meet regulars — and champions, by the way — Tostenson and Kitchen sought to put on a show here more locally Thursday night during the Crater Twilight Invite in Central Point.

With an impending RunnerSpace feature as the backdrop, the elite runners churned out a hard opening two miles during the elite gold division 5,000-meter race around the Crater High track and then, per usual, found each other within a stride or two when Tostenson took to his kick with about 200 meters remaining.

Kitchen wasn’t far off the pace and used his longer stride to close the gap on his teammate down the stretch, and when Tostenston stumbled during his final few steps, Kitchen never faltered as he closed to the finish line with a narrow victory as both runners came in at 14 minutes, 23 seconds.

Kitchen officially got the winning nod at 14:23.70, with Tostenson next at 14:23.90 — placing each as the second- and third-best marks in race history behind former teammate Tyrone Gorze, who won in 14:11.3 during his senior season in 2022.

“Just watching them come down the line in our home meet here running 14:23 off not a very fast mile — I think they were 4:40 — and just to think that we’ve had a 14:11, 14:23 and another 14:23 here in the last few years, that’s crazy,” said Crater cross country coach Justin Loftus.

“They’re both No. 1 to me,” he added. “I was super happy with how they competed today, really everybody across the board.”

Tostenson was coming off a win last Saturday in the 45th annual Asics Clovis Invitational in California, where he finished in 14:41.3 ahead of Tesoro High’s Griffin Kushen (14:43.8) and running buddy Kitchen (14:44.5).

The Comets placed third as a team behind Beckman and Jesuit of California, creating a shift in the recently released DyeStat team rankings as Beckman took Crater’s fifth-place spot and bumped the Comets down to No. 8. Jesuit stands seventh.

Individually, Tostenson is fifth in the nation and Kitchen is ranked 12th by DyeStat among distance runners.

“The guys lead the race the whole way,” Loftus said of his top two runners Thursday. “You never know how things are going to close out. They had a big race Saturday so it’s a shorter window coming back for our Twilight meet but it was a nice night and we tried to push things for the first two miles as RunnerSpace came down to do a little post on that. We didn’t quite get our team there but they all had pretty good 5K times.”

Mason Morical of Caldera was able to break the Crater string with a third-place mark of 14:42.30, while senior Ivar Hokanson placed fourth for the Comets (15:01.10). Crater also swept spot Nos. 7-10, but it was the leading duo that created most of the drama on this night under the lights at Dutch Meyer Field.

“When you have guys at that level, they’re at that level for a reason,” said Loftus. “They’re competitors and they’ve got more than the above-average person does as far as fitness and will to win and be on top. I think both of those guys are in that conversation and that’s why they’re ranked both in the top 15 in the nation. They’re wonderful teammates to each other and to the rest of the team.”

“I would’ve liked to see more sub-15 guys, I think Ivar was just over,” added the coach of his boys team, “but they’re coming along. We’re better than last year, for sure. It’s a shift when you’ve got guys at the top level. You’re either burning the bridge there or learning how to run that fast.”

The elite gold division girls race also created the top four marks in Crater Twilight history, surpassing the previous meet record of 17:44.66 by Yreka’s Mattie Whipple in 2023.

Caldera sophomore Maddie Carney broke away from the lead pack with about five laps to go and cruised to victory in 17:19.70 to set the new record.

Crater senior Emma West, who was already runner-up on that list after last year’s effort, trimmed seven seconds off that time to finish second Thursday night at 17:39.60 — just a hiccup ahead of sophomore teammate Brynn Davenport (17:39.80).

Ashland freshman Natalie Kupka finished fourth (17:42.00) to provide for all the meet-record efforts.

“It was a good fight,” said Loftus of the girls race. “(Maddie Carney) is going to be a contender at the state level.”

“I know Emma would’ve probably liked to go faster but I always tell kids if you’re getting faster then you’re doing something right,” he added. “For Brynn, that’s pretty good for a sophomore. The sophomore that won for Caldera is pretty amazing but we’ve got some talent coming up for sure, too.”

Sophomore Haddie Barsalou (sixth, 18:20.00) and freshman Mari Dunlap (seventh, 18:29.10) also earned top-10 marks for Crater, with Nettle Grey of Grants Pass placing eighth (18:31.00) and St. Mary’s senior Bella Fortino crossing 19th (20:09.10).

“Some people don’t like us running on the track in cross,” Loftus said of the unconventional cross country meet, “but it’s nice to see legit times for kids as they’re trying to get recruited by colleges or whatever.”

Crater Twilight Invitational

GOLD RACE

BOYS INDIVIDUAL RESULTS (Top 10): 1, Tayvon Kitchen, Crater, 14:23.70; 2, Josiah Tostenson, Crater, 14:23.90; 3, Mason Morical, Caldera, 14:42.30; 4, Ivar Hokanson, Crater, 15:01.10; 5, Cole Fiegener, Corvallis, 15:18.30; 6, Jaxson Stovall, Marshfield, 15:28.90; 7, Grant Headley, Crater, 15:29.00; 8, Garrett Faught, Crater, 15:30.60; 9, Reece Hvall, Crater, 15:33.80; 10, Maxwell Miracle, Crater, 15:35.00.

GIRLS INDIVIDUAL RESULTS (Top 10): 1, Maddie Carney, Caldera, 17:19.70; 2, Emma West, Crater, 17:39.60; 3, Brynn Davenport, Crater, 17:39.80; 4, Natalie Kupka, Ashland, 17:42.00; 5, Miley Morical, Caldera, 18:00.60; 6, Haddie Barsalou, Crater, 18:20.00; 7, Mari Dunlap, Crater, 18:29.10; 8, Nettle Grey, Grants Pass, 18:31.00; 9, Hallie Pyfer, Klamath Union, 18:35.90; 10, Lucia Williams, Corvallis, 18:49.60.

PLATINUM RACE

BOYS INDIVIDUAL RESULTS (Top 10): 1, Isaac Young, Cascade Christian, 16:36.50; 2, Royal Linthorst, Crater, 16:39.90; 3, Caleb Shaw, Ridgeview, 16:43.00; 4, Nash Jackson, Caldera, 16:43.50; 5, Noah Eichenbusch, Glide, 16:46.40; 6, William Pyeatt, Phoenix, 16:48.00; 7, Saffin Wrolstad, Corvallis, 16:48.70; 8, Beck Anspach, Ridgeview, 16:54.70; 9, Tristan Klecker, Klamath Union, 16:56.20; 10, Alexander Briggs, Corvallis, 16:57.40.

GIRLS INDIVIDUAL RESULTS (Top 10): 1, Eden Anspach, Redmond, 19:32.60; 2, Halle Goodman, Glide, 19:36.70; 3, Adley Damon, St. Mary’s, 19:42.50; 4, Claire Davenport, Crater, 19:47.10; 5, Saige Griffin, Cascade Christian, 19:57.50; 6, Kara Loftus, Crater, 20:05.10; 7, Madyson Winters, Cascade Christian, 20:2970; 8, Emma Heppner, Crater, 20:29.90; 9, Abigail Sims, Corvallis, 20:30.50; 10, Alexa Green, Grants Pass, 20:30.80.