Glacier runner beats Morley sisters in Missoula meet

For the first time in her high school career Makena Morley took second at the Mountain West Classic cross country meet in Missoula.

Glacier High School’s Annie Hill took the title from Morley, finishing in 16:39.64. Makena followed at 16:48.84 and Bryn Morley placed third with a time of 17:04.61.

“I just didn’t have a great race,” Makena Morley said. But the senior athlete is taking the loss in stride and looking forward to her next race on Saturday. “It was good for me to get beat,” she said.

Logan Morley placed fifth in Missoula with a new personal best of 15:26.15. Overall he was pretty happy with his race, though there was one spot where he wished he’d done something differently: pushing harder coming up a hill.

“I thought I could catch them on the downhill,” he said.

The middle school girls continued to show their potential in Missoula, placing third as a team.

Eighth grader Anya Young placed second at the meet out of 204 runners with a new personal best of 7:49. “Anya is one of the ones that puts in the time this summer,” head coach Sue Loeffler said.

Young was excited to run the course. Though she would have liked to take first, she pushed hard at the end and was pleased with her time, knowing the race will be different for her in high school.

“I was just happy because it was my last time doing that race,” she said.

While the rest of the crosscountry team travels to Polson this weekend, Makena, Bryn and Logan Morley will travel to Boise, Idaho for the Bob Firman Invitational.

None of them has competed at the meet before but Makena and Logan have run the course during Nike Regionals. It will give Makena a chance to race against the girl who beat her at nationals last year.

“It’s going to be really exciting,” Makena said. “It will be fun to run against people I don’t normally run against.”

“My goal is just to stay with the top pack for a while,” Logan said.

Bigfork results from Mountain West Classic in Missoula

Varsity boys,  373 runners

Logan Morley 15:26.1 5th

JV boys, 490 runners

Cody Johnson 18:55.2

Ryan Shaw  20:20.3

Jack Sillivan 20;47.9

Varsity girls 330 runners

Makena Morley  16:48 .8 2nd

Bryn Morley  17:04.6 3rd

JV girls, 432 runners

Xiaoxiao Strong  21:52.4 26th

Veronica Farrier

Middle School girls, 204 runners, placed third as a team

Anya Young 7:49 2nd

Heather Wallace 8:32 22nd

Kristen Hutz 8:40 28th

Corina Wallace 8:49 35th

Kylie McMullan 10;10.6

Ashton Ramsey  11:23.3

Lucy Takeuchi  11:25.9

Alexa Kirby 11:27 .4

Lyra Henry  13;40

Middle school boys

Anton Young 7:31 12th

Braden Anderson 9:46

Kurt Hedley 12:39

Colton Hedley 13:16 .5