Funded entirely by community support, the Vikes and Vals cross-country team has a full roster this season with seven male and seven female runners. Last year the team only had four of each and was only able to compete individually.

“This year is the first we have had a full high school team in awhile, which is really cool,” head coach Sue Loeffler said. “I’ve been real impressed with all the kids and how hard they worked. They came in with a better base than I ever had from running in the summer, so that makes you able to start at a higher level.”

When coach Loeffler says a higher level, she certainly isn’t exaggerating as the Vikes and Vals are running a minimum of three miles for practice with occasional 8-9-mile courses and 60-minute runs as well.

Because there’s a full team this year, there’s a new focus and approach to how the Vikes and Vals are preparing for this fall’s cross-country meets. Previously the focus was on individual runners, but now they are working on running better as a team to lower the team’s overall score.

In addition to a full roster of high school runners, Bigfork Middle School has three students working with the high school team. With this kind of preparation so early in their running careers, it looks as though the Vikes and Vals cross-country team will have many more successful seasons in the future.

The cross-country team will compete in Cutbank on Friday at 3:30 p.m.