PRIEST RIVER — Bonners Ferry cross country was back in action at Priest River Lamanna High School for the Ivan Benson Invitational. The meet, named after the longtime Priest River cross country coach, was a full 5K course that featured two large loops, was relatively flat with the exception of a couple of hills, and was mostly on natural surfaces. The race also had only two races, one for each gender.

The Lady Badgers started out the afternoon and Abby Gorton once again set the pace for Bonners Ferry. With a time of 20:24 Gorton handily won the race, beating second place Josie Yovichkin from Coeur d’Alene Charter by one minute and four seconds, meaning business as usual for the outstanding senior.

The rest of the Badger pack really moved up, including freshman Ceci Roemer. Roemer worked her way up from third on the team to take the second scoring position for the Lady Badgers. “She is a great worker and is always so positive,” assistant coach Catherine DelSalle said of Roemer adding, “She’s very coachable!”

Roemer took tenth place and finished in 23:31.

Just behind her was Camille Ussher who managed a 24:08. Senior Emily Gorino was next at 24:34, and Lauren Onstott came up big at the final scoring position, cruising to a 26:06, passing several runners in the last lap to earn her team some much needed points.

In the team scoring, there were only two complete teams: Priest River and Bonners Ferry. Runners from Lakeland, Kellogg, and Charter also competed. When it came time to tally the marks, the scores were as close as they can get. Priest River won the meet with a score of 27, Bonners Ferry took second with 28 points.

The boys race was larger and much more competitive with six complete teams toeing the starting line. Hunter Smith dueled with Charter’s Logan Hunt for the majority of the race, going stride for stride with him for 2.6 miles.

“Out in the wooded section he just took off on me and I couldn’t bring him back,” Smith said afterwards.

The senior from Bonners Ferry did manage to hang on to second place and sailed to an 18:00. Teammate Connor Alexander battled with a small pack for the early stages, but pulled away with Garret Miller from Kellogg. In the final stretch Alexander couldn’t hold on to Miller, but still locked in a solid fourth place finish and a time of 18:39.

Austin Donn was the third Badger across at 20:27, followed by Levi Bonnell at 20:49. Brady Hinthorn was the final scoring position at 22:31. Justin Mendenhall made his way into the varsity seven range by finishing sixth on the team with a time of 23:22 and Matthew Donn rounded out the varsity squad with a time of 23:39.

In the team scoring Bonners Ferry faced five other complete teams including Kellogg, Priest River, Lakeland, and IC Academy which turned out to be the team to beat. IC Academy won the race with a dominant pack in the top 10, taking 43 points. Kellogg finished second with 71 points, edging Lakeland who had 72. Bonners Ferry came in fourth with 78 team points.

The Badgers have two meets in the upcoming week. They’ll first travel to Kellogg for the Ben Castro Invitational on Thursday, Oct. 3, and will come back to the friendly confines of Kenny Mendenhall Stadium for the Bonners Ferry Invite on Saturday, Oct. 5. Races begin for the day at 9 a.m. and road access behind the high school will be blocked from 8 a.m. until the conclusion of the races later that morning to facilitate safe race conditions.

Full Results for Priest River can be found here: https://bit.ly/2oKqUlv