County kids enjoy run in sun

The location of the third annual Mineral County five kilometer run may have changed from last year’s, but the results were about the same.

In St. Regis Friday at the Mineral County Governor’s Cup 5K, the individual winner and the first-place team from the five kilometer run in Alberton last year repeated their winning performances. Superior sixth-grader Tucker Smith crossed the finish line one minute and 31 seconds faster than anyone else to win his second-straight 5K run, and the top 10 St. Regis fifth- and sixth-graders finished the race in an average time of under 30 minutes to win the team championship for the second year in the row.

“My legs feel like rubber,” Smith said after winning the race. Smith’s winning time of 25 minutes and one second was two minutes slower than his time last year, but this year he didn’t have his older brother Billy pushing him to the finish line. Last year, Billy finished seven seconds behind Tucker in second place. While Tucker may not have had Billy pushing him to the finish line, he still expected himself to win and made sure his Dad was there this year to see him cross the finish line in first place.

Superior fifth-grader Josh Benda was the one pushing Smith to the finish line this year. Benda finished the five kilometers in 26 minutes, 32 seconds to win the fifth-grade boys competition. “This was the longest I’ve ever run,” Benda said. He said he had practiced quite a bit, but didn’t think he had run for five kilometers. The practiced seemed to pay off for Benda. “I thought it was going to be a little harder,” he said.

Benda finished just ahead of the top three St. Regis finishers. Arianna Jones, Tyler Park and David Shadley all crossed the finish line in 26:39 for St. Regis. Jones, who won the fifth-grade girls’ competition last year, was the first sixth-grade girl to finish this year. St. Regis also had the first fifth-grade girl to cross the finish line. Gabrielle Moeller ran the five kilometers in 30 minutes and 22 seconds to win the fifth-grade girls competition.

The top 10 Tigers ran the five kilometers in an average time of 29 minutes and 28 seconds to win the team event. Cindy Feasel, the St. Regis physical education teacher and race organizer, said that while the race’s main purpose was to have fun, the students still like to win. “It’s important to them. It proves to themselves that they are good athletes,” she said. Feasel said the students take a lot of pride in winning for their school.

Alberton finished in second in the team results with an average time of just under 33 minutes. Jack Lehl was the Panthers’ fastest runner, finishing in 29:14. Kayla Richardson was Alberton’s second fastest runner and fastest girl. Richardson ran the five kilometers in 30:23. Superior came in third with an average time of 33 minutes and 21 seconds.

While the results may have pretty much stayed the same, this year’s five kilometer run saw a lot of changes. For the first time in the race’s three-year history the county incorporated the Governor’s Cup into the race.Feasel said that by incorporating the Governor’s Cup into the race, the students participated in a six-week training program and got a free T-shirt. She said the students who completed the six-week training program are also eligible to compete in the Governor’s Cup 5K in Helena June, 7. She said St. Regis is planning on taking a group of students to the race.

This year, race was also the first time that the grades lower than fifth was able to participate. Kindergarten through the fourth grade got to compete in the five kilometer race, most of them just running a mile. If the race tired the younger athletes, they didn’t show it. Minutes after finishing, they were playing on the St. Regis playground, full of energy and waiting for their hamburgers to be cooked. Monica Wilson, the St. Regis fourth-grade teacher who ran the five-kilometer race, said she was surprised that they had that much energy after finishing the race. “I just want to go sit down and put my feet up,” She said.

Feasel said the race is a way to get the children enthused about physical fitness. She said that it is important that the students are able to see that exercising can be fun and are not forced into it. She said it is also a lot easier to get them into healthy lifestyle habits at an early age, rather than trying to change the bad habits of older children.

“It gets better and better every year,” said Mineral County Public Health Director Peggy Stevens. Stevens started the race three years ago and has seen it grow every year. “Our next goal is to get the whole community involved,” she said. Stevens, who started the race to promote a healthy lifestyle and battle obesity amongst the youth in the county, said this year’s race was another success. “Even the weather held out until now,” she said. It had been sunny the whole time the students ran, but once the students had been loaded on the buses it started to rain.