The Montana State Cross Country Championships
Author: MT43 News Sports Reporter
MT43 News Sports Reporter
The Montana state cross country championships took place Saturday, October 25th, at the University of Montana golf course in Missoula. More than 1100 runners (610 men and 541 women) representing 130 schools from all classes descended on the course, which also hosts the Mountain West Classic every September. Class B had the largest fields of the day for both the men and women, despite having the most difficult qualifying times.
The Bulldog men’s team finished as a team in 13th place with 394 points among the 24 Class B teams with enough qualifying runners to tally a team score. First to cross the line for the men was senior Gavin Green, who ran a time of 18:37 to place 37th in a field of 203 runners. Gavin improved by half a minute from the Mountain West race. Junior Dallas Fligge, in his first state race, finished in 48th place in 18:51. Fellow junior Rylan Hoveland erased forty-six seconds off his Classic time to clock 19:48 in 99th.
Freshman Clayton Rice ran a time of 19:49 to place 100th, which was almost a minute faster than he ran the same course in September. Junior Luke Tullos landed in 100th by shedding thirty seconds off his Mountain West time of 20:07. Seniors Keaton Cavasos (20:36) and Sam Flesch (21:27) completed the team in 132nd and 169th. Keaton managed to cut 1:13 off his time from September and improve by a minute from last year’s state race. Way to finish the season strong, Bulldogs!
Junior Kyla Meissner led the ladies’ race from nose to tail, crossing the line in 19:32 to take the Class B championship. Sophomore Elaine MacDonald ran a time of 21:44 to place 31st. Juniors Arabella McDaniel (23:49) and Shalyn Sentinella (24:23) finished in 82nd and 100th, respectively. Freshman Tana Santi ran her personal best time of 25:00 to finish 118th. Freshman Addy Mosher clocked a time of 25:19 to finish 130th, while senior Logan Barkhurst finished in 26:16 for 157th.
The Lady Bulldogs finished in 12th place out of 20 scoring teams with 332 points. Our district represented well with the Jefferson Panthers dominating the team competition by placing four runners in the top thirteen and scoring 76 points. The Manhattan Tigers were defending champions but came up short, finishing second with 105 points.
Longtime coach Brooke Dolan and assistant coach (and former Bulldog standout) Louis Ingalls always do such an outstanding job preparing their runners for each meet, peaking week after week. This team averaged over 250 miles in training during their season. It is no easy feat to make that kind of mileage fun, but these coaches do, and the kids feel more like family than teammates by the end. Cannot wait to see their successes again next year!
