Plains runners improve times at Mountain West Classic

It had all the makings of a miserable day.  As the Plains and Thompson Falls cross country team bus approached Arlee and Evaro last Saturday, they were met with a wall of clouds, rain, lightning and thunder.  With the teams headed towards Missoula for the annual Mountain West Classic cross country meet, the mood on the bus was getting somber as the kids and coaches were thinking that the day was going to be long, muddy, wet and cold.  But, as the bus approached the University Golf Course on the south end of the University of Montana campus, the rain quit, the clouds thinned and a bit of sun began to poke through.  That turn of good fortune was a signal of the day to come for the Horsemen and Trotter harrier squads.

First out of the gate were the junior varsity girls. 

“I chose to have all of the Plains girls in the JV race,” coach Tony Banovich said.  “With all the AA, A, Washington and Idaho schools in the varsity races, I thought that the JV race would be a better indicator of the typical level of competition we see at the B school level.  And, our girls responded in spectacular fashion”. 

Felicia Earhart led the way with her 27th place finish (out of 332 girls) and 21:43 time.  This performance placed her as the best overall Class B girl in the JV race.  Also finishing among the top half of the field were Andrea Wood (109th place, 24:04) and Zoe Banovich (133rd place, 24:31).  Teija Gill ran 30:34 in what Banovich described as the team’s performance of the day.  “Felicia’s run was great and she placed well; and, Andrea and Zoe both had their best times of the year so far,” Banovich said.  “But, Teija improved her personal record by over 10 minutes today.  That’s phenomenal.  It was so exciting to see the training kick in a bit and see her improve by so much.”

Banovich split his boys squad, with brothers David (junior) and Daniel (freshman) Damschen taking part in the JV race.  According to Banovich, “David was a bit flat today, having fought a bit of a cold all week.  But, he ran strong today and his 22:51 finish time is a very solid performance in a field of 462 boys.  Daniel had a great day.  His 26:34 was about a 2 1/2-minute PR; and, worked really hard to improve on his performances of the first two weeks.”

The boys varsity race included the Horsemen trio of Carter Montgomery, Kenneth Beech, and Robert Earhart. 

“The boys varsity race is probably the most competitive race in Montana all year,” Banovich said, “even more so than state.  It includes all the AA and A schools in Montana, most of the B school, and several big schools from Spokane and Idaho.” 

With a field of 347 runners, Montgomery was not intimidated and was right in the thick of the race.  His 16:45 time placed him 62nd overall; and, was the 5th best performance by Class B runners.  Beech’s 18:14 time place him in the top 1/2 of the field.  To show how competitive the race was - Earhart finished just 19 seconds behind Beech (time of 18:33); but, 29 runners finished between the two in that short span of time.

The Middle School teams were represented by what have become known as the “Fab Four” - Ryan Ovitt on the boys side; and, Carley Von Heeder, Sheridan Martin and Sera Boggess for the girls.  Ovitt’s race was first; and, his time of 8:58 over the 1.7 mile course placed him 42nd out of 122.  For the girls, Von Heeder’s 10:06 was good for 55th (out of 134) - and, Martin and Boggess finished in times of 12:18 and 13:36.   Boggess was another runner who had a big PR day - her time representing a 2 minute improvement as compared to last year’s performance.

“Mountain West is a great meet,” Banovich said.  “There’s almost 2,000 kids between all the races, the meet management is excellent and they really try to give the kids the feel of truly big time event.  I was really pleased with how the kids did on Saturday.  They all ran well; and, we had some breakout performances by some of the younger kids.  But, we’ve got lots of work yet to do.  We have two meets in the next week and a half (Ronan on the 25th and Thompson Falls on the 30th); and, our primary focus remains State at the end of October.”  Banovich now hopes that Saturday’s parting of the clouds and the performances of the runners are all good signs of what lies ahead for the remainder of the season.