Bozeman Xc Invitational
Author: MT43 News Sports Reporter
Bozeman XC Invitational
MT43 News Sports Reporter
Saturday, September 14th was a beautiful day, especially in Bozeman on the Bridger Creek Golf Course for the Bozeman XC Invitational. Bozeman’s race was the Bulldogs' third of the season and a fast one with lots of runners from 42 schools (16AA, 9A, 7B, 7C, and 3 Wyoming) but the Townsend Bulldogs were up for the task. Eight of our 11 runners had their season-best time (SR), while four of those were overall personal best times (PR) at this distance of 5 kilometers. Coach Dolan was missing a handful of runners due to illness or injury.
Individual success in cross country is measured so much by your times: improvement on a particular course, recording your best time over a season, or running your fastest time over your career. These milestones are more rewarding than where you place in the pack and can have various factors: course topography, course conditions, weather conditions, size of pack, etc.
The Junior Varsity Girls were up first with 250 ladies taking to the undulating course; one-loop that starts by edging holes 11-13 before crossing over McIlhattan Road and finishing by traversing the length of holes 14 and 18 each twice. Arabella McDaniel (26:26) led the way for the Bulldogs placing 127th, while Shalyn Sentinella established her new personal record of 27:06 in 147th.
Next up was the largest field of the day with 304 Junior Varsity Men. Sam Flesch set his new PR by running 22:57 to place 199th. Ross MacDonald took 1:21 off last week for his SR of 25:53 and 269th place.
The Varsity Ladies took the course next with a field of 221 contenders. Kyla Meissner ran a time of 20:41 (SR) to place 27th and was the top Class B finisher. Elaine MacDonald clocked her PR of 21:36 finishing in 70th. Kaelyn Sangray’s time of 21:57 gave her an 86th finish for her season’s best time.
The 243 Men’s Varsity runners were after that. Gavin Green ran for the first time in Bozeman to place 177th in a time of 19:16, while Rylan Hoveland raced to his SR of 20:02 for 199th. Luke Tullos shortened his Bozeman course time from 2023 by almost four minutes to 22:25 placing 234th. Patrick Gossard also ran in a personal best time of 22:26 to come in 236th place.
These Broadwater Bulldogs are getting faster with each meet this season and are certainly exciting to watch. The next two meets will be Friday, September 20th in Lewistown at Pine Meadows Golf Course and the biggest meet of the season, the Mountain West Classic in Missoula on the 28th featuring 80+ schools from the three-state region.
Hope to see you there!
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Image 1 Caption: Sophomore Luke Tullos shortens his course time by almost four minutes.
MT43 News Sports Reporter Photo
