Wildcats run away with divisional championship

The Wildcats dominated the course at Rebecca Farm in Kalispell Saturday as the Columbia Falls boys easily won the Western A Divisional cross country title.

Led by Joe Lamb and Seth Umbriaco, the Wildcats had five runners finish in the top-16 to record a team score of just 39. Frenchtown finished a distant second with 76.

“We had a good day with a lot of strong performances,” head coach Jim Peacock said after the race. “It was a good day for running and we did well.”

The Cats’ top three runners were separated by just 22 seconds as Lamb won the race with a time of 16:26.56 while Umbriaco was second at 16:33.04 and James Role was seventh at 16:48.55.

Aiden Jarvis finished in 17:17.09 to come in 13th while Beau Umbriaco was 16th at 17:27.50.

Also finishing the race for the Cats were Bryce Bennett, who was 31st at 18:13.26, and Bailey Sjostrom, who was 35th at 18:18.05.

In girls’ action, the Wildkats also had a strong showing, compiling 113 points to finish sixth.

Lara Erickson was the top runner for the Kats as she finished in 20:26.88 to come in ninth. Genevieve Delorme was 13th at 20:47.74, Raychel Hoerner was 22nd at 21:34.99, Alyssa Blankenship was 32nd at 22:11.33 and Kara Mohr was 37th at 22:34. Emma Upton was 39th at 22:39.84 and Kaila Belston was 42nd at 22:48.74.

Both varsity teams will be in action at the state meet Saturday on the University of Montana Golf Course in Missoula.

In junior varsity action, the Wildcat boys finished second as James Peterson was third, Mac Jarvis was fourth, T.J. Jacobi came in sixth, Cole Cooper was 18th and Conner Cheff was 21st.

The JV girls came in fourth as Kaylee Johns was 14th, Katy Garate was 15th, Laney Conger was 22nd, Jayna Moultrey was 28th and Gracie Mee was 31st.