For the second year in a row Bigfork High School sophomore Makena Morley won the Mountain West Classic at the University of Montana golf course on Saturday. And, the entire BHS cross country team set new personal bests during the meet as well.

Not only did Morley win the girls varsity division with 23 seconds between her and and the second place runner, but she nearly broke the course record with her time of 17:07.4.

“Makena was real close to breaking the course record, 17:02, and she is the second-year champ of the race, so that is pretty big,” BHS cross country coach Sue Loeffler said. “They all performed really well, everyone stepped up to the plat and ran well.”

Morley’s first mile was her fastest, at 5:21.3, then she temporarily lost her first place position in the second mile and dropped to fourth. Then in the final stretch her endurance and speed out-performed her competition as she breezed past the rest, her average pace never fell below 5:59.

With 361 runners in the varsity division and 449 runners in the JV division, this was the biggest meet of the season for Bigfork.

“The hardest part is the start, when you have so many runners the start is hard,” Loeffler said. “You try to get them to go out a little harder, and that’s not what they are used to, otherwise you get bogged in and can’t get around.”

Go out a little harder is exactly what Bigfork’s runners did.

Almost all of Bigfork’s runners placed in the top half of the meet, which is impressive considering most are still freshmen and sophomores.

Once again, freshman Logan Morley was the fastest Bigfork runner at the meet, placing 99th with a time of 16:51.1. Ellessa Henion finished 93rd with 22:42.9.

Carson Cantrell was off to a speedy start with his first mile finished in 5:32 and an overall time of 18:01.3. Chance Kittle also had an impressive start, he reached the first mile marker at 5:46.8 and had an overall time of 18:52.4.

“I knew they were capable, so it was neat to see their hard work pay off,” Loeffler said.

George Gibson kept a fairly steady pace, a 6:58 minute-mile with an overall time of 20:55.3.

Chelsey Olson kicked it into high gear around the second mile where she worked her way up to 64th place, her overall time was 20:30.3.

“The highlight for me was how well they performed, we had a rough week at practice,” Loeffler said. “We ran Swan Hill for one and did some sprinting.”

Craig Cheroske paced himself, he was in 242nd place at the first mile, then 302nd and then 205th with an overall time of 20:07.2.

Cody Johnson also had one of the more steady paces, his speed went from 6:46.4 to 7:03.4 to 7:05.4 for an overall time of 20:55.3.

Shad Pataky finished in 22:23.6, Emily Pataky in 25:04.9, and Sarah Abbott in 28:22.4.

Olson is the team’s only senior, so for Senior Night she will be introduced before the Homecoming football game on Friday at 7 p.m. Olson ran all four years of high school and in middle school too. Loeffler said she has turned into a competitive runner over the years and plans to join the Marines after graduation.

“It has been a pleasure to coach her and watch her grow,” Loeffler said.