T. Falls cross country hopeful for state

Danielle Switalski

With two meets under their belt, the Thompson Falls Cross Country team is getting back into a running groove after a long summer of sleeping late and taking it easy and Sanders County Fair weekend which kept a lot of the runners from attending the first meet of the season.

The team is returning after a very good season last year when the Lady Hawks won the Western B championship.  The team is fairly large this year, with eight boys and eight girls at the high school level and six boys and one girl at the junior high level. 

Thompson Falls only ran with half of their team at the first meet at Libby two weeks ago on September 5 with all of the boys showing up, but most junior high girls had 4-H obligations.   

The team’s second meet at Eureka had a great turnout, with everyone on the team showing up to compete, minus one girl who was out sick.  Head Coach Sarah Naegeli said everyone did a really good job for this being most kids’ first meet.

As for what to expect from the season this year, Naegeli said confidently “they are looking for a top ten finish at State this year for both teams, which would be an ideal outcome.”

A successful State finish is not out of reach for both the girls and boys teams with three returning seniors on each team who all ran at state last year.  Last year the Thompson Falls’ girls finished fourth at state and the boys finished 16th.

Naegeli is expecting positive results from all her returning runners, in particular seniors Beca Gunderson, Jeffreyanne Parker and Monica Conlin and junior Mariah Naegeli.

“These girls hold the team up,” said Naegeli.

As for returning boys, Naegeli is expecting good results from three of the returning seniors Cody White, Mike Barnett and Logan Sheets as well as for the rest of the team who are improving with every run.

Naegeli said the team did not put in as many miles over the summer as they have in past years, however, now that the difficult hump that embodies the first few weeks of practice is over the team is back in shape and ready for the season. 

“They are ready to start competing again after the first couple of weeks of running sore and then the fair hits, but now they are all back in shape and ready to compete,” added Naegeli.