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Cross Country: Mountain West Classic
Author: MT43 News Sports Reporter

MT43 News Sports Reporter

The Mountain West Classic held on the University of Montana Golf Course is one of the premier cross-country races in the Northwest United States. Saturday, September 19th, was a beautiful day for running as over 2500 runners from across Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, and Washington, representing more than 100 schools, lined up for their races. This course is moderate in difficulty with gradual inclines and declines and one giant hill that challenges every runner’s grit.

The Junior Varsity race for the ladies was up first with 366 runners toeing the line together. Four of our Lady Bulldogs logged their personal best times and another their season’s best. Freshman Kathryn Six finished 33rd in 23:10PB, and sophomore Kay Crusch was 63rd in 23:57PB. The rest of the team finished as follows: 130 Alexis Fryer (25:28), 142 Kensley Sangray (25:46), 148 Addy Mosher (25:53), 179 Lydia Brakefield (26:31PB), 185 Sarah Morgan (26:36PB), and 247 Shalyn Sentinella (28:10SB). The ladies were 12th out of the 27 teams with enough runners to score collectively.

The largest race of the day, totaling 589 harriers in the men’s JV, saw our Bulldogs taking 33rd place with 913 points. Junior Gavin Johnson led the way, placing 204th in 20:59, with junior Urijah Duede in 276th with 21:40SB. Rounding out the team were: 284 Isaiah Lapsley (21:45), 326 Luke Tullos (22:15), 329 Mason Johnson (22:19), 389 Everett Kirksey (23:00), 483 Trey Coker (25:13SB), 505 Cooper Nichter (25:37PB), 513 Declan Toney (25:50PB), and 534 Isaiah Sparks-Lowry (26:54PB).

The Bulldogs did not have enough runners in either Varsity race to score as a team, but our top runners were certainly competitive individually. Senior Dallas Fligge crossed the line in 90th place out of 461 Varsity Men in his new personal best time of 17:38PB. Sophomore Clayton Rice cut more than a minute off his time from last year’s meet to finish 259th in 19:18. Senior Kyla Meissner, in her return from an injury, placed 33rd in 19:50, while junior Elaine MacDonald was 177th place out of 421 Varsity Ladies with a time of 22:34.

The Bulldogs will run their homecoming race on Thursday afternoon, September 24th, at the Butte High Invitational located at the Highland View Golf Course. They follow that with what is usually their fastest course of the season on Friday, October 2nd, at Headwaters Public Golf Course in Three Forks. Hope to see you there on Friday morning: the JV race is at 10:00, the Varsity race is at 10:45, and the junior high race is at 11:30.

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PhotoCredit: MT43 News Photo
Image 1 Caption: Freshman Kathryn Six logs her personal best time on a difficult course in Missoula. MT43 News Photo
Image 2 Caption: Junior Urijah Duede erased 1:30 from his time last season at the Mountain West Classic MT43 News Photo
Image 3 Caption: Middle School (littles) join their High School (bigs) for the second time this season, running a shorter version of the same course MT43 News Photo