Penguin XC Attends Pride Land Invite

The Whitewater Penguins headed to Lockwood on Thursday, October 3rd for the Pride Land Invite. This was a new course for us to attend. We usually go to the Great Falls Invite this week but this worked better for our schedule. Thankfully it was a challenging course that pushed the kids to their limits.

We only had two kids competing, Shelbi LaBrie and Sommer Green. This was a small meet with only 22 varsity girls and 23 jv girls consolidated into one race. There were some pretty good competitors with several Billings teams in attendance. The course is located right behind Lockwood’s high school, looping around the practice field and heading out onto some rough terrain involving a very steep incline about 200 yards long. They had to complete the loop twice. Shelbi LaBrie ended the race in 1st place with a time of 21.20. Her first split was right on at a 6.35, with the next two coming in a little slower. This wasn’t surprising with how steep the hill was, with many runners having to walk the last 30-40 yards of it. The second loop around was pretty brutal, but she came off the hill fast and strong. Sommer Green ended the race in 22nd place with a time of 38.46. Her first mile also was right on schedule but again, slowed from there. She is running very strong with good form and improving with that aspect of her running. It’s good to see them keep their composure through the entire race even when it's hard to finish.

This week we have the Malta Invitational on Saturday, October 12th at the Marian Hills Golf Course. I encourage everyone to come and watch these athletes compete. They’ve worked very hard all season and would love to show the county all of the hard work that they’ve put in. State is coming up in a couple of weeks and the season will be over before we know it. Good luck to all of our local teams!