Cross country teams run at Thompson Falls

THOMPSON FALLS – The Plains and Thompson Falls Cross Country teams competed at the Blueslide Golf Course for the Thompson Falls Invitational.

According to Head Coach Tony Banovich, the Plains cross country runners brought home four personal bests, three seasonal bests, a second place finish and a third place finish.

“Homecoming week was very good to the Plains Horsemen and Trotter cross country runners,” said Coach Banovich.

Demi Horton represented the girl’s side for the Trotters, while her other fellow athletes had conflicts with homecoming activities.

Horton pulled through for the girls, steadily moving up from seventh place to third place, taking home both a medal and her seasonal best of 19:54.

Russell Kajula led the boys, holding onto a second place spot from beginning to end, recording his personal best and fastest time at 16:34.

Along with Kujula, other runners on the team had noteworthy races.

“Aaron Garrison may have had the race of the day for the boys, running 18:41 – a 39 second personal best and his first time ever under 19:00,” said Coach Banovich.

Brenen Abromeit and Alan Ihms both brought in a time of 20:05, solidifying “twin-personal bests.”

Daniel Damschen also experienced his best seasonal time and took 12 seconds off his record time, finishing at 20:30.

As for the junior high girls, Natalee Deschamps ran 18:34 for her personal best in the two-mile; Samantha Marquardt-Brown finished in 18:40, also completing her first two-mile race.

“When considering all of the homecoming activities that take place during the week, I was really pleased with how the kids performed. They continue to race well and have very strong performances,” said Coach Banovich. “They’ve just been progressing very well every week and I’m quite proud of how they have come together as a team.”

Coach Banovich said the team is now in their last three weeks of the season – a time that could prove critical as the competition advances.

“The goal will be to sharpen them up and keep them healthy as we head towards divisionals and state,” said Coach Banovich. The team will go on to compete against Whitefish on Saturday.

As for Thompson Falls, the boy’s team took fourth place with 124 points. Bluehawk Logan Naegeli came in fifth place with a time of 16:54, with the next Bluehawk coming in 20th place overall. Joshua Wulfekuhle completed his race in 18:08, followed closely by Will Vanhuss with 18:10.

Aicia Curran led the girls with a time of 23:03, while Abby Croft finished with 24:38 and Kaylie Cox and Lindsey Owens brought in a time of 24:50 and 24:54 respectively.

Thompson Falls will go on to compete in the Whitefish Invitational alongside Plains.