Malta takes second place in Wolf Point

The Malta M-ettes Cross Country team saw their first action of the year last Friday, August 31 at the Wolf Point Invitational.

Malta took second place with 70 points. Poplar won the event as a team with 66 points and Fairview took third with 209. Other teams participating were Dodson, Frazer, Brockton, Fairview, Plentywood, R & L Fusion, Circle, Wolf Point, Culbertson, Poplar, and Trenton, North Dakota.

The overall winner of the high school girl's 5k (3.1) mile race on a windy warm afternoon at Airport Golf Course east of Wolf Point was Allie Azure of Poplar, who cruised the course with a time of 21:26.

The Second place runner was Kaity Hove of Trenton, ND, who ran in with a time of 22:30, and teammate China Pierce ran in to a third place finish with 22:50. Malta's Leslie Young ran a fourth place finish with a time of 23:35, to earn her a medal and a top ten finish.

At the start of the race, Leslie sprang forward and led the race for a short while, and found herself fighting for the third place position most of the race and eventually settling for fourth place. She really dashed out there quickly to secure a top spot and then kept a good pace throughout.

Jillian O'Brien and Nikki Nicholson ran together most of the race, pushing each other throughout trying to keep in the top ten. Nikki, her first ever high school cross country meet, felt a little surge in the last mile and passed Jillian and just missed the medals by one place, finishing eleventh with a time of 26:00, and Jillian right on her heals with 26:08. That last mile was really great to watch; they worked off of each other and pushed each other to the finish line.

Danie Rhodes, was in a pack of Malta runners for the early part of the race and really looked strong, despite a nagging hip issue. She broke away and settled for a top twenty finish with a time of 28:24. She looks like she'll be a strong contender, but it's early and she's still conditioning after missing a week for a family vacation. Kaycee Bond was in the pack and just kept a steady pace and looked good and was very happy with her finish time of 28:54 because "I beat my time from last year!"

The most exciting finish of the day was Mira Heitland, exchange student from Germany, and Taylor Gilkerson pushing each other the final third of the race and then sprinting into the finish area and Mira finishing half a step ahead of Taylor, finishing 30:48:13 and 30:48:29. We were very excited about the way they finished! This was Mira's first every cross country race in the USA! Being a gymnast from Germany, running is a whole new experience. She told us she had never ever run before so this was exciting. She is strong and with more conditioning, she looks to be competitive as the season goes forward. Taylor ran well and had a great spurt there at the finish after last season's foot injury sidelined her. Chloe Hunter rounded out the group of Mette's, and ran a great race and finished much stronger and faster than last season. Her time was 41:12.

This was the first meet of the competitive season for the Mette's. We have more work to do, but the girls gained experience today and now have something to work off of. We placed very closely behind Poplar, who has had a strong team the past couple years. It will be exciting to see how things turn out as the season goes on.