Thompson Falls cross country hits Missoula

Sarah Naegeli for the Valley Press

T Falls ran in the Mountain West Cross Country Invitational at the UM Golf Course in Missoula Montana on Saturday. This is a HUGE race, organized by the Mountain West Track club. Teams competing were from Idaho, Washington and Montana. It was a much flatter course than our last couple meets, which our runners were certainly looking forward to all week. Luckily all races were done by 1:00, so it was a bit cooler than the roasting temperatures we’ve had all week.

TFalls had 3 girls in the JV Race

Jinghua Chen 29:15

Polina Zorkina 29:35

Nicole Ribeiro 36:11

All improved their times by about 2 minutes each

A total of 337 girls ran in the JV girls race.

Five in Varsity Boys

264 Mike Barnett 18:55 with a personal best by almost a minute!

316 Chris Pavlik 19:16

325 Cody White 19:38

340 Preston Schubert 20:17

352 Dalton Nelson 21:06 with a personal best by over two minutes

The boys race had over 360 runners. Mike has been incredible to watch the last couple meets. Chris is figuring out race strategy, and learning every meet (don’t forget this is his first year running). Cody can always be counted on to run a solid race. And our two freshman—Preston is running so well, and who knows where Dalton will end up the way he is dropping time.

Four in Varsity Girls

59 Beca Gunderson 20:22

119 Monica Conlin 21:09

125 Mariah Naegeli 21:14

126 Jeffreyanne Parker 21:14

The varsity girls race had 320 participants. All four of our varsity girls ran well. Beca is looking stronger and more confident each time she races. Monica continues to impress us and Mariah and Jeffreyanne are dropping time every race. I’m looking forward to seeing them run on our home course this Thursday.

And Six in the Jr. High Boys

6 Lucas Gruwell 7:34

46 Logan Naegeli 8:52

47 Noah Bronner 8:52

89 Josh Wulfekuhle 10:08

98 Dustyn Moore 10:43

107 Sean Ribeiro 12:19

113 runners competed in the jr. high boys race. This was a shorter race, about 1 1/3 miles compared with the 1 1/2 that they have been running. (our meet will have a 2 mile race for jr high) Lucas continues to run strong, and Logan and Josh ran great races. Noah had quite a race this week with a great kick at the end. Dustyn and Sean continue to improve.