Josey Neesvig and Justin Morgan have been turning some heads by the way they are leading the Thompson Falls cross country team so far this season.

Most of the heads turning are from the sidelines however, as the runners competing against Neesvig and Morgan so far this summer have mostly been focused on their backs as they try to catch up with the two Hawk standouts.

Neesvig scored her first win ever of a high school cross country race in the Mission Invitational Sept. 10, clocking out in 21:12 to out-distance second place Karli Owens of Polson by almost 17 seconds.

For his part, Morgan ate up the Mission course in 18:09 to claim fourth place overall on the mens' side. Morgan was the top Class B finisher in the race.

The efforts of the Blue Hawks' top two harriers and team leaders helped the Hawk girls finish second in team scoring while the boys placed fourth. Polson won the girls' team race with 24 points, the Hawks were second with 53, Ronan third with 58 and Arlee fourth with 90. Ronan claimed the boys' crown with 31 points, followed by Polson (47), Mission (59) and Thompson Falls (93).

Striding in behind Neesvig, Sierra Hanks won 10th place in 23:37, Megan Baxter was 19th in 25:40, Shaylynda Walker 21st (25:45), Roni Hanks 27th (27:50) and Reagan Hanks (30:31) 31st.

With the other Hawk boys, Jack Green (19:38) placed 17th, Marc Boyd (22:52) 34th, Hunter Little (23:55) 38th and Isaac Reed (25:34) 42nd.

Hawk harriers enjoyed another fine day of running at the Rebecca Farms Invitational in Kalispell Saturday as Neesvig and Morgan were again the leaders for Thompson Falls.

Running against a large quality field of runners from all Montana high school classifications, Neesvig won 22nd place in 21:29 in the women's race and Morgan ran down 34th place in 18:19 with the men.

The Lady Hawks, who finished 12th in team scoring, were also fueled by strong efforts from Hanks (23:23), Baxter (26:28), Walker (26:44), Roni Hanks (28:17) and Reagan Hanks (33:20).

Marc Boyd (22:52) also ran in the men's varsity race in Kalispell.

Although the Hawks were set to have a rare weekend off of running this weekend, Thompson Falls did host its annual Invitational at River's Bend Tuesday, and results of that event will appear in next week's Ledger.

Thompson Falls' next official cross country race will be the Whitefish Invitational next Tuesday.