POLSON – The Plains High School cross country team faced some unique challenges at the Pirate Duels XC Meet in Polson last Saturday. Held at the Polson Rodeo Grounds, the course featured obstacles such as hay bales, steep hills and log jumps.

While the weather was not as much of a challenge to runners as in past meets, the level of competition more than made up for the cooperative climate. With several AA and A schools represented including Columbia Falls, Polson, Flathead and Glacier, the team from Plains had their hands full.

According to head Coach Tony Banovich, the team held their own and were not intimidated by the high degree of competition or the unusual obstacles on the course.

“The cooler temps really seemed to help the energy levels of the runners,” said Banovich. “Without having to battle the heat, they were able to focus on their race tactics and competition plan.”

Leading the boys team with a fifth place finish was Russell Kujala with a time of 17:27. Aaron Garrison had a season best time of 19:40. That mark was the second fastest of his cross country career.

Also performing well for the boys team were Alan Ihms, Daniel Damschen and Brenen Abromeit with times of 21:35, 21:41 and 21:42 respectively. Damschen’s time was the fastest of his season thus far. Caleb Connoly had a personal best time for the junior varsity squad with a mark of 24:38.

For the girls squad, Demi Horton kept pace with runners from the bigger schools coming in sixth place with a time 20:51. Shannon Dimond had a solid race with a time of 24:06.

Jade LaDeaux came in fifth for the girls junior varsity team with a personal best time of 24:34. Natalee Deschamps and Samantha Marquardt-Brown both ran strong races on the shorter 1.68 mile course with times of 15:24 and 15:31 respectively.

Coach Banovich said overall he was pleased with the way runners performed.

“We had a good day across the board. Nobody really had an off day and several of the kids had great runs,” said Banovich. “Jade really made a big jump in performance. Aaron Garrison also had a big performance jump. He’s been working really hard this season. It was good to see Brenen Abromeit get in his first race of the season.”

Coach Banovich said he was looking forward to the next meet at the Mountain West Classic this weekend in Missoula.

“Teams from across the state will be in attendance,” said Banovich. “It will give us a great indication of where we stand as we go into the last half of the season.”