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The Blue Hawk cross country team was fortunate enough to have beautiful fall weather for their home meet last Tuesday at River's Bend Golf Course. Unfortunately, illness sidelined some of the home team.

"Chalk this up to unfortunate timing: several of our runners were home sick, or were getting sick. Good news, it will have passed through our team soon and we can move on," Coach Sarah Naegeli said after Tuesday's race.

Senior Ellie Baxter finished fourth among the high school girls, carding a personal record of 21 minutes, 1 second. Aubrey Baxter finished in 22:42, Faith Palmer in 23:40 and Kylee Huff in 27:02. For Huff, an eighth grader, this was her first meet with the high school team, and Naegeli said she had a great debut 5K run. For the high school boys, Simon Armstrong (22:21) and Wesley Powers (23:26) clocked personal records at River's Bend. Cael Thilmony (18:55), Brock Ryan (20:50), JT Taylor (21:10), Blake Shuterman (22:40) and Alek Sweeden (24:55) also competed for the boys' varsity Blue Hawks, while Jakob Molina ran in the junior varsity race, finishing in 26:11.

Nearly 500 runners competed at River's Bend last Tuesday, including the junior high Hawks. Audrey Fairbank led the girls with a time of 14 minutes, 17 seconds. "Audrey is proving to be holding her own as a young sixth grader among the rest of the older athletes this season," junior high coach Holly Franck said. "Audrey puts in extra miles, extra hills and continues to work hard to improve her times every week." Franck also noted that Brooke Flemmer improved her time from last year's home meeting by three minutes, finishing this year in 19:37. Addie Traver finished in 20:52, and Franck said Traver continues to make progress every week. "She is really showering her team leader skills in practice." Lexi Franck finished the home meet in 15:27 and Nevaeh Clawson in 25:52.

"Our home meet in my opinion is by far the best course we get to run this season," Franck said. "The view of the river, soft grassy path and beautiful weather made this race perfect. Our course is spectator friendly, so our community is able to see the runners in multiple areas along the way, as well as the start and finish line."

For the junior high boys, Weston Block led the Hawks in 14:25. "Weston is always pushing himself," Franck stated. "I am proud of his efforts." Evan Lofthus (15:46), Nathan Baxter (15:49.28) and Wyatt Franklin (15:49.59) showed great teamwork, Franck noted, and encouraged each other through the race at River's Bend. Remi Ryan improved his time on the home course by almost two minutes, finishing in 17:08 last week, and Noah Hill (16:42) came back from an early season injury to be a strong competitor for the team, Franck said. "The junior high athletes ran great on this two-mile course." The Thompson Falls course was a half mile longer than previous races for the young Hawks this year.

Annie Wooden

Kalem Ercanbrack of Plains reaches the finish line.

This week, the Hawks were slated to compete in the Arlee Hatchery Run and will travel to the Wilderness Run in Libby on Saturday. "Libby has some challenging hills, which will be great training at this point in the season," Naegeli said. "We're looking forward to more races on these beautiful Montana fall days."

Plains also competed at the Thompson Falls invitational, with sixth grader Simeon Costner winning the junior high boys race in 11:43, nearly 12 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher. Kalem Ercanbrack finished in 22:30, and Kassidy O'Keefe led the girls(27:34), followed by Peyton Wasson (28:23) and Lilly MacDonald (30:44). Ashley Ferlan completed the junior high girls race in 22:01 and Talon Ferlan the junior high boys race in 17:13.

The Trout Creek junior high team also competed at the Thompson Falls meet, with Tuff Ryder leading the Eagles with his 14:27 finish. Eillie Chambers (17:11) led the girls, followed by Makarlie Stein (19:18) and Zoey Willis (32:35).