M-ettes head to State Meet

The Harlem Cross Country Meet was held Friday, October 14, on the bike path near Don Addy’s Park in Fort Belknap due to the wet conditions from the heavy rains and snow from the previous week.

The overall winner of the high school girl’s 3 mile race was L’Tia Lawrence of Harlem who ran speedily over the blacktop course with a time of 19:41. Second place went to Sierra Summers of Frazer who ran in with a time of 22:28. And third place honors went to Hays-Lodge Pole’s Dianna Snow who ran in with a time of 23:01.

The Malta M-ettes placed as follows: TaChante’ Cole 6th place 23:27, Mariah Green 11th 24:40, Jada Nicholson 17th 27:33, Monicha Williamson 18th 27:44, Taylor Gilkerson 19th 27:45, Kaycee Bond 20th 27:55, Reese Sjostrom 26th 29:58 and Sarah Ware 27th 31:13.

Bella Lawless of Dodson/Whitewater placed 16th with a time of 26:56. Serena Sanguins of Dodson/Whitewater placed 31st with a time of 41:24.

Teams representing 31 runners from the following schools were Harlem, Frazer, Hays-Lodge Pole, Shelby, Rocky Boy, Sunburst, Dodson/Whitewater, and Malta who fielded the only team with a full team for scoring and got first place with a score of 71.

“We felt all the girls ran quite well at this new venue,” Malta Head Coach Thea Solberg said. “We hadn’t had a meet in two weeks due to the weather and so it was great to get back into competition again.”

According to Coach Solberg, the surface they ran on was similar to the one at Fort Peck making it easy to grip and a nice even surface. They ran out a mile and a half and turned around and ran back.

Cole ran strong and kept with the front pack and was able to secure a finish in the top ten and a medal. Green ran her second fastest time of the season and really pushed in with a good kick to finish. Nicholson ran a good solid race, posting her fastest time of this season after being out for a couple of meets. Williamson ran her second fastest time this season and looked strong. Gilkerson ran a good race and kept right with Monicha, as they pushed each other along and finishing one step behind. Bond looked much stronger and improved her time, posting her fastest time this season. Sjostrom pushed along the blacktop course and ran a good race. Ware ran well and posted her second fastest time of the season.

“Missing a meet the previous week because of the weather and the resulting affect on the running surfaces was hard because you kind of get out of sync and having a meet each week keeps you competitively sharp,” Coach Solberg said. “But we were very thankful that Harlem decided to continue on with having a meet and finding a dry place to run. This helped us to get back into the groove and we will be better prepared mentally now as we look at this next weekend with the big state meet.”

The M-ettes will be heading west to Kalispell on Friday, October 21 and participate in the Class B Girls State Championship on Saturday, October 22.

This is the first time that Kalispell has hosted an all class cross country championship and it is being held at Rebecca Farm, a 640-acre parcel of land in the valley north of Kalispell, and now hosting the event, it is the largest equestrian event competition in the United States.

“We look forward to competing here in this beautiful setting in the northwest corner of Montana,” Coach Solberg said.