Cross country team does well at Polson, Kalispell
The Columbia Falls cross country team had another strong showing in Polson Saturday as the boys were first at the Mission Shadow Duels Invitational, one week after coming in fourth at the Flathead Invitatation at Rebecca Farm in Kalispell.
Junior Joe Lamb crossed the finish line second overall at the unique meet in Polson last week and had the sixth fastest time of any male runner in school history at 16:38.
The non-traditional meet begins by sending off the number seven runner (a varsity team consists of seven runners) on the all the girls’ teams, then sent out the sixth position runner twenty seconds later.
Every twenty seconds, the next faster position started on the five-kilometer course until all the girls were racing. One full minute following each team’s number one girl, the number seven boys were started.
The stagger continues at twenty-second intervals until all the boys are running. Competitors must also hurdle multiple hay bale barriers throughout the race.
With this fun and interesting format, the runners that start early feel chased, and the runners started last have a lot of ground to make up. The race gets chaotic as runners make up the stagger and start congesting the course.
“I am extremely pleased with the team performances. Between the varsity and junior varsity teams, we saw 25 season best times and 16 of those were personal best performances,” head coach Jim Peacock said. “The kids ran relaxed, and I saw a lot of smiling on the course. The format that Polson coach Matt Seeley puts together creates an atmosphere a little different than any other race during the season, so it is a nice change of pace. Having staggered starts makes it so kids can’t rely on teammates to help pace them. Everyone has to run their own race and trust their own instincts. Saturday, those instincts were good.”
Defending Class A state champion Beatrix Frissell of Polson crossed the finish line first with a time of 18:40, while Lamb, who started three minutes behind Frissell, could not make up the distance and crossed the finish line second. Along with Lamb, sophomores Seth Umbriaco, James Role and Aiden Jarvis all finished in the top 10 in the boys’ race.
Sophomore Bailey Sjostrom finished 34th while seniors Beau Umbriaco and Biff Bennett rounded out the teams’ finishers with 38th and 40th places respectively.
For the girls, sophomore Lara Erickson fought off a nagging injury to finish 15th overall with a time of 21:19 while Raychel Hoerner was 19th at 21:59, Kara Mohr was 34th, Alyssa Blankenship was 42nd, Kaylee Johns was 55th, Kaila Belston 61st and Katy Garate was 62nd.
The Cats were in action close to home last week as they ran at the Flathead Invite at Rebecca Farm in Kalispell. The Boys were fourth, finishing behind only three Class AA teams. Lamb was again the top finisher for the Cats, coming in sixth with a time of 17:07 while Umbriaco was 14th at 17:46, Role was 23rd at 18:26, Jarvis was 24th at 18:28 and Sjostrom finished out the Cats’ top five with a 47th place finish at 19:30.
The Columbia Falls girls finished fifth at the meet, behind Flathead, Sentinel, Whitefish and Corvallis. Erickson was again the top finisher at 15th with a time of 21:39. Hoerner was 28th at 22:51, Genevieve Delorme was 34th at 23:30, Blankenship was 45th at 24:45 and Mohr was 56th at 26:07.
“The team ran the race with heavy legs after a week of intense workouts. Physically, they were worked over, but mentally, they competed well,” Peacock said. “We liked where we are in comparison right now, and we’re looking forward to the work ahead to continue making gains.”
The team will be in action Thursday as they run at the Thompson Falls Invitational.