Girls run away with another title

Boys take a close second

By DAVID ERICKSON

Whitefish Pilot

The Whitefish girls varsity cross-country team continued to run all over the competition Thursday.

The Lady Bulldogs took home another team title at Silver Fox Golf Course at the Ronan Invitational, while the boys earned the number two spot.

The course will be the site of the Northwestern Class A Conference Championship meet in mid-October, and this week’s meet was a nice preview for the Bulldogs.

“Anytime that you can get a look at the course early, it is a benefit for the future,” said head coach Bill Brist. “In this case, we were able to race well on the course and gain a lot of confidence for later this fall.”

The Lady Bulldogs dominated the leader board with five runners in the top-10 and finished with a dominating 34 points. Ronan was second with 56, and Thompson Falls was third with 83.

“These young ladies keep the heat on with every race,” Brist said. “They keep improving as they start to round into better condition. Improvement is the key at this point in the season. We are at the halfway point, and with all the other teams improving, we need to do the same, or we’ll give up our advantage.”

Lauren Kuennen and Loni Hanson again led the team with their fourth- and fifth-place finishes, respectively.

“These two front runners keep us in every meet,” Brist said. “They stay close to the lead runners, which gives us an edge in the scoring.”

The boys had a very good day as well, finishing second in the team standings with a score of 56 points to Thompson Falls’ 46.

“I thought that the boys did a very good job today,” said Brist. “They have improved a lot since our first couple of meets. Today was definitely their best race of the season. It was nice to see them compete so well.”

Drew Coco led the team with his third-place finish time of 15:55.

“Drew ran a very competitive race. The two runners in front of him have proven to be a couple of the better runners in the state,” Brist said. “He’s gradually moving his way closer to them. I’m certain that it’s only a matter of time and experience that will lead him to be able to get by these front runners. His time was a personal best by nearly 25 seconds, as he became only the third Bulldog to run under 16 minutes for three miles. He’s starting to close in on our school record of 15:43. I see him getting close by the end of the season.”

Erik Anderson also finished in the top-10 with his ninth-place finish. Nick Donovan (12th - 17:37), Patrick McGunagle (14th - 17:44) and Michael Harrison (18th - 18:08) rounded out the team scores for the Bulldogs.

“This was a solid run for the boys team,” Brist said. “Thompson Falls is a very good team. They’ve obviously have done a lot of off-season training, and they deserved the win. I think that we may be able to catch them later in the season as we continue to improve our workouts. We certainly have the talent and the opportunity as we see them again in our next two meets.”

Brist said it will be interesting to see how his teams perform against a big crowd in next week’s Mountain West Classic in Missoula. The Bulldogs will have the chance to go up against the best runners from all over the northwest on Saturday.

Girls

Team totals — Whitefish 34, Ronan 56, Thompson Falls 83, Polson 139, Eureka 153; Not fielding full teams: Bigfork, Darby, Columbia Falls, Plains.

Top Whitefish girls finishers - 4th Lauren Kuennen, Whitefish 19:37; 5th Loni Hanson, Whitefish 19:47; 7th Stella Holt, Whitefish 20:14; 8th Clare Miller, Whitefish 20:18; 10th Bailey Eaton, Whitefish 20:42; 11th Kelly Beiser, Whitefish, 20:50.

Boys

Team totals — Thompson Falls 46, Whitefish 56, Ronan 109, Polson 138, Eureka 220; Not fielding full teams: Arlee, Bigfork, Darby, Columbia Falls, Plains.

Top Whitefish boys finishers — 3rd Drew Coco, Whitefish 15:55; 9th Erik Anderson, Whitefish 17:07; 12th Nick Donovan, Whitefish 17:37; 14th Pat McGunagle, Whitefish, 17:44; ; 18th Michael Harrison, Whitefish, 18:08.