Harriers display camaraderie despite distance

The Dodson-Whitewater Harriers have about an hour drive between their two communities, but the runners are supportive when it counts.

"They are very supportive of each other," Coach Tianna Bloomer told the PCN. "My kids are really supportive of the Whitewater girls and the Whitewater girls are supportive of my boys. They were like that last year too."

Coach Bloomer coaches the Dodson side of the Co-op, while Coach Bruce Warren coaches the Whitewater side.

This season, Dodson will field four of six runners, consisting of Junior Jasper Doney, sophomores Tyrese Messerly and Trevor Walker, along with freshman Corbin LoneBear. Whitewater consists of senior Serena Sanguins and sophomore Bella Lawless.

For Whitewater, Bella Lawless ran at the 2015 State C Meet and posted a time of 27:43.9.

"Bella is showing that she is a good, strong runner this year," Coach Warren said. "They have both been to every practice and they're showing an interest in bettering their times."

Lawless took four minutes off of her initial time from her first meet last season to her last as a freshman.

"It was good for a freshman," Coach Warren said. "I've never had one progress that well and it seems as though she will have a significant improvement this year as well."

Sanguins has already made herself a goal for the 2016 season.

"Serena is showing improvement too," Coach Warren said. "Her goal is to make state."

In order for Sanguins to make state, she has to participate in one meet and have a time under thirty-five minutes.

The Whitewater team has a pretty solid course to practice on that bodes well for both Lawless and Sanguins.

"We have a good variety of terrain to train on," Coach Warren said. "We do something different every day."

The fact the both girls practice together with no other runners has been a bonding experience but they are eager to compete.

"It's going good but they are looking forward to having more runners to run with," Coach Warren said.

Doney and Messerly both competed at state last season. Doney posted a time of 23:42.8, while Messerly posted a time of 20:40.5.

Messerly has had a strong start to the season taking fourth place at the Wolf Point meet with a time of 20:08 and Walker took ninth with a time 21:31.

"Both of them started out pretty slow to keep a steady pace until the last mile," Coach Bloomer said. "They did pretty well at sprinting it in. They hung together throughout the majority of the race until the end when Tyrese pulled ahead."

Though Walker and LoneBear are in their first season, they have shown they can keep up with Messerly for a good amount of time.

Coach Bloomer said LoneBear has been impressive in practices.

"His mile times are under six minutes," Coach Bloomer said. "Corbin's very long-legged and he's a very beautiful runner."

Coach Bloomer mentioned that LoneBear has the potential to post times less than eighteen minutes.

Like Messerly and Doney, Walker and LoneBear are using cross country to get in shape for the basketball season.