T-Falls harriers return strong team
Members of the Thompson Falls cross country team run through the woods at the River's Bend Golf Course near Thompson Falls as they prepare for their season opening race this Saturday at the Deer Lodge Invitational. (Chuck Bandel/VP-MI)
One of the best distance runners in Thompson Falls history has graduated and moved on to play basketball in college.
Ellie Baxter, a multi-sports standout for the Lady Hawks the past several years, led the cross country team to a seventh place finish at last year’s Class B state championship. She is now an incoming freshman at Carroll College in Helena, having signed a basketball scholarship this past spring.
Baxter was named to the All-State team via her top 15 individual finish.
However, there is another Baxter, Aubrey, sister of Ellie, who as an eighth-grader was also named to the All-State team last year.
And in addition to the continuation of the Baxter lineage, cross country head coach Sarah Naegeli has good reason to be optimistic about the coming season.
In addition to Aubrey, the team is well stocked with experienced runners and promising underclassmen.
On the boys side of the roster, Cael Thilmony is back looking to help the men’s team improve on last year’s 18th place team finish. He will be joined by returning teammates Brock Ryan and Blake Shusterman.
For the girls, Aubrey Baxter will have some teammates with lots of running experience, including Faith Palmer and Kylee Huff.
“The kids are working hard and focused on improving each time out,” Naegeli said. “We should be competitive again and I think we can be better than last year”.
Naegeli said it;’s too early to tell who the top team competitors will be, “ask me in a couple weeks”.
The Lady Hawks will get their first test as a team this Saturday when they travel to Deer Lodge to participate in the Deer Lodge Invitational meet. They travel to the Eureka Invitational Thursday, August 31.