Varsity girls, both JV teams claim titles

SANDPOINT — For the second week in a row, the Sandpoint varsity girls and boys and girls JV teams each claimed championships, as the Bulldogs hosted the 7th Annual William Johnson Invitational on Saturday at Travers Park, drawing 11 complete teams from around the region, including all 5A IEL teams.

Katherine Kaul led the girls team with a 3rd place finish, running a 19:00 for her second fastest time ever. She was followed by Hannah Davidson, who was 7th in 19:41, Rainey Woodward in 8th with a 19:45, Dana Beaty in 11th with a 20:03, Niah Brass in 12th with a 20:06, Sharon Rowe in 15th at 20:35, and Heather Wallace in 16th in 20:43. Now all seven varsity girls are on the school’s all-time Top 25 list for the 5K.

Pack strength near the front of the race continues to be one of the team’s hallmarks, with all seven runners placing in the top 16 in a field of 64.

Fin Lund-Andersen clocked a 16:00 to finish third in the boys race, leading the Bulldogs to a third place team finish. Next for Sandpoint was Cole Dillon, who was 15th out of the field of 76 with a time of 16:47, Clay Rasumssen was 19th in 17:13, Reilly Wolfe was 23rd in 17:19, and Riley McGinnis 31st in 17:50 to round out the top five scorers. The team has been consistently improving with Regionals around the corner, and is the top 4A school in the North right now.

In the JV races, both Sandpoint teams took first. For the girls, Sandpoint won with 21 points and placed five girls in the top 10 out of the 51 runners. Farli Boden led nearly the entire race for the win, finishing in 21:42. She was followed by Chloe Braedt in 4th (22:13), Paige Davidson in 5th (22:14), Mesa Keating in 6th (22:15), Chloe Pierce in 10th (22:56.14) and Erin Meek in 11th (22:56.95).

The JV boys also put five runners in the top 10, topping the field of 8 teams with 26 points. Sloan Woodward won the race with a time of 17:53 out of the field of 105 runners, unleashing a kick from about 400 meters out to take the win. Gabriel Merithew was 3rd in 17:57, Dutt Rogers was 6th in 18:13, Kyle Almeida was 7th in 18:14, Story Crossett was 9th in 18:21 and Garrett Pierce was 11th with an 18:22.

Next up for Sandpoint is the 4A Region 1 Championships, which will be on Oct. 20 at Farragut State Park.

n Bullpups cross country team in action

The Sandpoint Middle School cross country team raced twice last week, at Post Falls on Tuesday and at Travers Park on Saturday.

At Post Falls, Camille Neuder lead SMS placing 8th with a time 10:00. Emily McCleod had her best race of season placing 19th with time of 10:17. Next in for SMS was a pack lead by Helen Wells (37th), Romi Fox (38th), Nora Kulser (39th) and Riley Cessna (40th). It was a strong showing with more than 120 racers in the field.

Jett Lucas won his third race of the season with a time of 8:19. Also making the podium in all three races this season was Trey Clark in 9th. Austin Edwards ran his best race of the season placing 14th overall. Ryan Clary was next in 19th, followed by Max Reed 24th and Ben Ricks 28th. Sandpoint took 3rd out of nine schools, falling to Coeur d’Alene Charter and Lakeland.

At the William Johnson Invitational, Neuder had her best finish and time of the season at the home meet, placing 4th with a time of 9:51. Helen Wells had her best race of the season placing 14th. Angelina Knepper moved from SMS’s 10th runner to 3rd, placing 19th overall in her best race yet. Leading a huge pack of Bullpups was Romi Fox 22nd and Angela Stoneham 23rd as the last two scorers followed by Riley Cessna 26th, Nora Kulser 27th, Jillian Primgaard 28th, and Kaylee Tillberg 29th. The ladies scored 78 points and were 4th out of five schools.

The boy’s took 2nd with a score of 42, falling to Coeur d’Alene Charter’s 24. Jett Lucas and Trey Clark continue to lead the Bullpups. Lucas won his fourth race with a time of 8:21, 21 secs faster then the next closet athlete. Clark had his 4th podium finish of the season in 5th place and a PR of 8:56. Ben Ricks was 9th, and had his first podium finish with an excellent finish, edging out the 10th place runner by two-tenths of a second. Nathan Dotson had his highest place of his career in 13th, followed closely by Jayden Lewis in 14th and Henry Fite in 21st.