Boys cross country the deepest team in years; girls have lots of talent

Hungry Horse News

Both the boys and girls cross country teams look poised to bring home some hardware this season. The boys took third at state last year and while they lost a few seniors, their top runner in junior River Blazejewski is looking fit after a summer of working trail crews.

Blazejewski, a junior, took, 17th at the state meet last year as a sophomore to help lead the Wildcats to a third-place finish.

This year, coach Jim Peacock said there’s 11-12 athletes vying for the seven spots on the varsity team.

Outside of Blazejewski, this early into the season, “I honestly can’t say who are varsity runners are,” Peacock said.

“It’s a really good group of kids,” he said, noting that this year’s team should be “deeper and faster than last year’s team.”

Having said that, Browning, Corvallis and Hamilton are all looking very strong again this season as well.

Peacock said he expects good things from seniors Brock Swope and Oliver Kress as well as juniors Cash Short and Cosley Payne.

Added into the mix are Mason Colliander, Griffin LaRoque, Eric Miner, Jack Phelps and Lucas Peterson.

On the girls side, they should be solid again this year as well, Peacock noted. 

They were just points away from taking third at state last year.

This season look for good things from Ashley Andrews, Cora Hanan, Mya Badger, Chloe Savoy and senior Marissa Schaeffer.

In addition, Clair Bates, a former soccer player, has joined the squad and Chloe Williams, a sophomore is looking sharp.

“I think we have a team that will compete for a trophy,” he said.

The top team on the girls side should be Hardin again this year, as they won the state title last season and lost few runners. Browning boys won the state title last year.

Peacock is assisted by Kati Knutson and Colleen Finberg.