Malta Runners at Poplar Meet, Runners Qualify for State

The Malta Cross Country team ran at the Poplar Invitational last Saturday, September 2.

Individually, Kash Stiles finished thirty-fourth with a time of 23:05, Kael Young was thirty-fifth with a time of 23:06, Michael Mayer was forty-fifth with a time of 24:51, and Megan Morser was twenty-second with a time of 26:51.

Poplar won the boys' meet, Trinity Christian (Williston) was second, Scobey was third, Wolf Point was fourth, Frazier was fifth, and Glasgow was sixth.

The girls' meet was won by Scobey, Poplar was second, Fairview was third, and Brockton was fourth.

We ventured over to Poplar for the annual cross country meet earlier than planned due to the intense heat that was predicted.

We were able to watch a beautiful sunrise and sip coffee and arrived for the 8 o'clock walk through when it was still a bit cool. But the sun was shining brightly and the coolness would soon be a memory.

The high school boy's 3.1 mile race was first and got off to a quick start as the gun sounded and Peyton Summers of Wolf Point exploded and ran off far ahead of the rest of the group.

The course was changed this year due to the trail near the river being affected by flooding from the spring run off. The runners took off like before but didn't have to tackle the gravel hill and followed a dirt road for a mile and then got to the blacktop road and continued on till the finish line.

The overall winner of the high school boy's 3.1 mile race was Peyton who finished with a very impressive time of 15:47. When he came by the two mile mark, he was so far ahead of the others that it seemed as if he was in his own race. He is a fun runner to watch because he makes it look so easy and effortless. But the rest of the boys group began to filter in and Kash, Kael and Michael of the Mustang team were among those, running hard having exploded at the start with the rest of the boys group.

At mile one, all three were running fairly close together at a good pace and within their target times. At the two mile mark, Kael was ahead of the three and as they went down the long blacktop hill and came back up the sidewalk, both Kash and Kael were running together. They were pushing each other very hard into the finish area which is slightly uphill.

At the finish line, Kash leaned in and came in one second ahead of Kael. It was a fantastic finish for both with Kael running his fastest time ever since he began his cross country career just a year ago. Kash was within a few seconds of his great finish last week. Kash's comments afterwards were "it was a tough course, full of hills but overall it was a good meet. I am proud of all my teammates." Kael, who was pretty pleased with his performance, said with a smile "it was pretty good, I liked the new course better and overall rated it a 9 out of 10 for meets."

Michael came in not too far back from the other two and ran a much more experienced looking race compared to the previous meet and pushed it in to get a time that bested his first meet time by nearly four and a half minutes! He said that the meet went very well, and that he got a new personal record and was very proud of himself as were we coaches!

The girl's race got off to a fast start with Mya Green of Scobey taking charge.

The high school girl's 3.1 mile race was after the boys and the temperature was rising and much warmer.

Megan got a good start like we had talked about and then just moved along and settled into a pace that she maintained, running to keep her spot in the middle of the pack. She had her great explosive kick at the end of this long hot race and managed to run her fastest time ever. "I was excited about the course change and was even more excited to find out I ran a personal record!"

We were pleased with her performance and that she placed in the middle of the girls group and that she cut off so much time from her previous meet.

All of our hard work is beginning to pay off. We are very excited; because of the hard work, all of our runners have now secured a qualifying time and will be able to participate in the state meet in mid-October. We are looking forward to upcoming meets and will continue building endurance and speed. The next meet is in Havre on September 9.