Cross Country Catch Up

The Malta M-ettes ran in three meets last week, which included the Frazer Invitational on Tuesday, September 19, the Havre Invitational on Saturday, September 23 and the Shelby Meet on Monday, September 25.

Teams that participated at the Frazer meet were Glasgow, Malta, Poplar, R&L (Richey and Lambert) Fusion, Frazer, Circle, Harlem, Culbertson, Plentywood, Dodson, Hays-Lodge Pole, Brockton, and Wolf Point.

TaChante Cole took third, running a fantastic race, putting forth a tremendous effort to ward off fourth place finisher Anna Buller of R&L Fusion, the two trading places throughout the race. Cole’s effort earned her a personal best time of 21:42 for her cross country career.

Leslie Young ran the tough course behind Cole and traded positions throughout the course and eventually finished in seventh place with a time of 22:52, sandwiched between the two Frazer girls running in their own home meet. Jillian O’Brien had a strong run and kept her eyes on the red, white and blue teams of Glasgow and R&L Fusion, determined to not let them out of their sight and ran in to a twelfth place finish and running a personal best for the season with 23:30.

Danie Rhodes ran the challenging course over the dried gumbo roads, pushing her way through the bottleneck of girls that started the race and eventually settled for a twenty first place finish and a time of 26:15, which was a minute faster than the previous meet she ran in. Kaycee Bond found herself in a challenge with a Glasgow girl, and determined not to get passed by her, pushed herself over the course and had a kick at the end that pushed her into the twenty-sixth place position and a personal best for the season, running a time 27:26.

Monicha Williamson ran strong and steady over the course and had a twenty-eight place finish and a time of 28:34. Teammate Reese Sjostrom who enjoyed the softer running surface, ran in with a time of 29:22 for a twenty ninth place finish.

Taylor Eggebrecht, having succumbed to a hip injury early in the season, ran her first race and finished thirty sixth and had a time of 31:42. Right on her heels was teammate Joanie Sjostrom who ran the hilly course in 31:56, placing thirty-eighth. And rounding things out was a personal best finish by Chloe Hunter who finished thirty-ninth and a time of 40:23, knocking off over a minute from her previous race.

We felt very happy about the results of this race. Frazer is not an easy course with two long hills and one short steep one that leaves you breathless as you top that hill. What goes up must come down and the long down hills proved to help the girls to lengthen their strides and challenge other runners and to an eventual second place team finish.

The middle of the season is upon us and it is an exciting time as we work hard to get faster and enjoy the cooler weather, challenging ourselves with several meets sandwiched together here and prepare ourselves as we coast into the state meet in a month.

There were a large number of teams that participated in the Havre meet on Saturday, September 23, and they were from the following schools: Sunburst, Heart Butte, Frazer, Winnett, Shelby, Malta, Dodson, Rocky Boy, Havre, Fergus, Glasgow, Browning, Cut Bank, Poplar, Hobson, Geyser, Belt/Centerville, and Harlem.

The Havre Invitational Cross Country Meet was held on a crispy cool fall morning. Traditionally this meet may have frost on the grass, a cold west wind, a frigid cold rain or sleet falling from the early autumn skies. But today the conditions were perfect, temperatures hovering near fifty degrees, the sun shining intermittently and not a wisp of a breeze. The Havre meet gives our girls a chance to meet up with other teams from the west and south that we haven’t competed with yet this year including several Class A schools like the Browning and Fergus teams which field large numbers of student athletes. The large numbers and the separation of the individual junior varsity and varsity races gives a runner a taste of what it will be like to participate at the state races later in the season.

For the varsity race, O’Brien placed twenty-eighth with a time of 25:14 and Williamson was forty-fifth with a time of 28:30.

In the JV Race, Eggebrecht placed twenty-second with a time of 32:42 and Chloe Hunter placed twenty-fourth with a time of 44:20.

The Havre meet is a great meet to experience at mid-season with the large number of runners and the grassy surface of the MSU Northern Montana Campus. However, with only four members of the M-ette team able to participate in the meet due to conflicts taking several members out of town, and others recovering from injuries or sickness, we were unable to field a full team for scoring. Taylor Eggebrecht and Chloe Hunter ran the JV girls race, running steady despite some nagging injuries that have plagued each one. Jillian O’Brien and Monicha Williamson pushed their way over the grassy course during the varsity race, and finished with good strong kicks.

With this race in the record books, we look forward to another busy action packed week of practices and competition at Shelby on Monday, September 25, and then over to Fort Peck for the Scottie Invitational on Saturday, September 30, with the entire team back into action.

Information on the Shelby meet will be available in next week’s PCN.