M-ettes take sixth at Scottie Meet

Autumn ushered in a wet weather pattern late last week and the relentless rains persisted as the Malta M-ette Cross Country team headed east for the annual Glasgow Scottie Invitational Cross Country Meet at Fort Peck on Saturday, Saturday 24. The M-ettes took sixth with 166 points.

Teams representing 84 runners from the following schools in which varsity and JV runners ran together were: Miles City, Terry, Harlem, Glendive, Poplar, Frazer, Glasgow, Culbertson, Richey-Fusion, Sidney, Circle, Hays Lodge-Pole, Plentywood, Havre, Dodson/Whitewater and Malta.

"When we arrived, the rain was steady and we set out with warm clothes and a few umbrellas to walk the course, as all teams do, to learn the course you are to run on," Coach Thea Solberg said. "However, the high school girl's race was bumped up to be the first race and our walk was cut short. This was certainly good news, because we knew that we wouldn't have to wait around as long and we could just get this wet race over with."

Eighty four brave girls made their way to the start line, shivering as they waited for the race marshal to make his way over with last minute instructions. With the blast of the gun, they quickly raced across the wet grassy field and made their way to the paved nature trail that they would follow for the next three miles.

The paved trail was a boon to the runners, helping them to grip and get better footing than they would have had if they had to run on a sloppy muddy road. Spectators wearing all manner of protective clothing and holding umbrellas cheered the runners on, hoping somehow that they would run faster so that the race would end sooner and could go home to dryer conditions.

The eventual overall winner of the varsity girl's 3 mile race that took place at the wet Downstream Campground Nature Trail on this very rainy Saturday morning was Morgan Vosler from Miles City who ran the course with an impressive time of 18:53. Second place went to Latien Lantis of Terry, with a time of 19:16. And third place went to Harlem's L'Tia Lawrence who ran in with a time of 19:26.

The Malta M-ette Cross Country varsity runners placed as follows:

1. Jillian O'Brien 14th place 21:43

2. TaChante' Cole 19th 21:57

3. Mariah Green 35th 23:51

4. Monicha Williamson 48th 25:33

5. Taylor Eggebrecht 50th 26:10

6. Taylor Gilkerson 55th 27:11

The overall winner of the JV girls division was Brinlie Nielsen of Glasgow who ran in with a time of 22:29. Teammate Faith Sallee placed second and ran in with a time of 22:40. Third place went to Rachel Donnelly of Miles City and ran in with a time of 23:57.

Malta JV runners placed as follows:

1. Reese Sjostrom 14th 27:16

2. Sara Ware 19th 27:47

Coach Solberg and Assistant Coach Fallon Handley were very excited with the results of this wet race, especially with every single Malta cross country girl showing improvement on their time.

"I'm not sure that I remember a race where everyone improved and in a race where the conditions were not ideal," Coach Solberg said. "This showed sheer determination by each runner."

Jillian O'Brien and TaChante Cole started the race together and continued on pushing each other throughout the race with Jillian charging ahead near the finish dropping nearly two minutes off her previous best time and TaChante improving her time as well and both posting personal bests.

Mariah Green and Monicha Williamson improved their time by two and three minutes respectively and posted personal bests. Taylor Eggebrecht used her long stride and improved her time by four minutes, posting a personal best as well.

Taylor Gilkerson, Reese Sjostrom and Sarah Ware ran close together, pushing each other along and each one improving their time.

Sarah dropped the most time of any other M-ette with an incredible five minute improvement, posting a new personal best.

"This race was definitely a confidence builder, not only because of the unfavorable weather conditions, but because there was some good competition that we haven't faced with the three class A schools of Miles City, Glendive and Sidney," Coach Solberg said. "It was really great to be able to meet up with some other teams besides the ones we usually run against and helps you to begin thinking about the large state race and teams you never get to see until then." According the Coach Solberg, the M-ettes are looking forward to our next meet when we head west to the Havre Invitational Meet on Saturday October 1.