CONNELL, Wash. — A change in scenery didn’t stop the Sandpoint cross country team from leaving their opponents in the dust.

On Saturday, the Bulldogs took a three-hour bus trip to participate in the Connell Invite for the first time ever.

There, SHS encountered a handful of schools they never see and competed on a course with plenty of history. The large meet drew teams from across eastern and central Washington and a few North Idaho foes.

“I thought everyone really enjoyed it,” girls cross country coach Angie Brass said. “It’s exciting to have a new venue. A lot of the courses that we run we get to see at least once, sometimes twice a season.”

A steady half-mile hill climb in the closing stages of the race and temperatures in the mid-80s provided quite the challenge, but the Bulldogs overcame it all and put on quite the show.

“It was a good push on tired legs the last mile,” Angie said.

Sandpoint was originally scheduled to compete in one of the largest cross country meets in the Pacific Northwest on Saturday — the Bob Firman Invitational. However, the event was canceled due to COVID-19 concerns, preventing the team from getting an early glimpse of the state championship course.

“Everyone was a bit bummed about the [Bob] Firman, but we pivoted and were able to find a meet that was competitive,” Angie said.

The SHS girls captured the first-place trophy in the varsity race while the boys secured third out of 26 teams.

Angie was proud of her team’s performance and she said her top five runners — Ara Clark, Megan Oulman, Mackenzie Suhy-Gregoire, Payton Betz and Grace Rookey — continued to look strong.

“The top five girls on varsity ran incredibly smart, gritty races,” she said.

Ara dominated the race, finishing in 20:16 to earn first. She took the lead about 100 meters in and never let it go, controlling the race from start to finish.

“She’s been running so strong and she’s such an intelligent racer,” Angie said. “She knew what she wanted to do … and she really wanted to go out at a hard pace and she did.”

Oulman crossed the finish line 41 seconds behind Ara in second and Suhy-Gregoire grabbed fourth with a 21:30. It was Oulman’s first 5K of the season and Angie said it was great to watch her and Suhy-Gregoire work together.

“They were great,” she said. “I think even as Megan and Kenz separated a bit they were able to keep driving and keep each other in sight, so I think that is always helpful for teammates.”

Betz came in ninth with a 22:01 and Rookey secured 13th with a 22:35.

“Grace and Payton did a great job of having a good pack together,” Angie said. “They were able to really help each other out.”

Jillian Primgaard placed 45th out of 133 runners with a 24:38 to round out the six varsity runners for Sandpoint.

The Bulldogs ran away with the team title, finishing 35 points ahead of second-place Coeur d’Alene.

In the girls junior varsity race, SHS did not have enough runners to record a team score, but Kora Converse, Tiffany Brown and Terra Bode finished second, third and fourth respectively, and Madison Hall took 14th.

The varsity boys were two points behind second-place Mt. Spokane and 46 behind first-place Coeur d’Alene. Boys cross country coach Matt Brass has been looking for his fifth, sixth and seventh varsity runners to close the gap on his top four — Trey Clark, Nathan Roche, Slate Fragoso and Ben Ricks — and on Saturday he saw plenty of progress in that pursuit.

“I feel like it’s getting closer every meet,” he said. “I think that we have a top six that is pretty well established now.”

Each week it seems like a different runner steps up and leads Sandpoint’s front pack of four. It was Trey’s turn this meet.

The senior captain brought home 10th with a 17:45. Nathan earned 11th with a 17:56 and Fragoso was two seconds behind him in 12th. Ben took 20th with an 18:23.

Matt said those four traded off leading the pack early in the race, but in the second mile the heat started to get to some of them and Trey took over the rest of the way. He said Trey surged ahead as he neared the finish line.

“He’s a veteran and he’s been racing for a long time,” Matt said. “He took the burden [of leading the pack] on his shoulders, and he got to the hill and just assaulted that hill.”

Caleb Roche, Sandpoint’s fifth runner, only finished nine seconds behind Ben in 27th. After a slow start, Matt said Caleb took off and made up a lot of ground.

“He made a big gap pull on the rest of the varsity, which he has to do,” he said. “Early in the race, he was way more than halfway back in the crowd and he passed me … and I’m like Caleb, ‘You have to go, you can not sit back here and wait, you have to compete with those teams,’ and he got the message immediately and took off. He honestly passed about 40 or 50 [people] the rest of the race to get himself in close.”

Daniel Ricks had a strong showing, grabbing 35th with a 18:51. Two weeks ago at the Timberlake Farragut Invitational, Daniel ran a personal best and Matt said the sophomore built off that performance Saturday.

“He’s really established himself in that number six spot,” Matt said.

Michael Hall placed 81st out of 195 runners in the boys varsity race.

The Bulldogs secured second in the boys JV race. Kasten Grimm (fourth), Anders Eastley (sixth), Keane Haesle (eighth) and Klein Fragoso (ninth) all finished in the top 10. With his performance, Grimm earned a chance to compete on varsity in the Bulldogs’ next meet.

“Kasten had a phenomenal race,” Matt said. “... That seventh spot is still pretty precarious because there is so much going on with that JV crew, but with two invites left it’s time for someone to really grab hold of it and take it.”

Sandpoint will head to the Fairways Golf Course in Cheney this Saturday to compete in the fourth annual Battle for the 509.

RESULTS

VARSITY

GIRLS

TEAM SCORES — 1, Sandpoint 28. 2, Coeur d’Alene 63. 3, Mt. Spokane 103. 4, Logos 117. 5, Moscow 154. 6, Lewiston 170. 7, Selah 182. 8, Pullman 222. 9, Chiawana 239. 10, Colville 302. 11, Tri-Cities Prep 325. 12, Royal 347. 13, College Place 350. 14, Hanford 361. 15, Zillah 366. 16, Toppenish 403. 17, Kiona-Benton 447. 18, Quincy 480. 19, White Swan 505.

SANDPOINT RESULTS — 1, Ara Clark, 20:16. 2, Megan Oulman, 20:57. 4, Mackenzie Suhy-Gregoire, 21:30. 9, Payton Betz, 22:01. 13, Grace Rookey, 22:35. 45, Jillian Primgaard, 24:38.

BOYS

TEAM SCORES — 1, Coeur d’Alene 34. 2, Mt. Spokane 78. 3, Sandpoint 80. 4, Moscow 112. 5, Lewiston 125. 6, Logos 201. 7, Pullman 211. 8, College Place 212. 9, Joel Ferris 234. 10, Timberlake 299. 11, Wapato 320. 12, Royal 376. 13, Connell 454. 14, Zillah 473. 15, Hanford 492. 16, Othello 502. 17, Goldendale 504. 18, Freeman 520. 19, Grandview 521. 20, Bickleton 543. 21, Colville 548. 22, Toppenish 575. 23, Quincy 597. 24, Tri-Cities Prep 623. 25, Richland 654. 26, Elgin 690.

SANDPOINT RESULTS — 10, Trey Clark, 17:45. 11, Nathan Roche, 17:56. 12, Slate Fragoso, 17:58. 20, Ben Ricks, 18:23. 27, Caleb Roche, 18:32. 35, Daniel Ricks, 18:51. 81, Michael Hall, 20:23.

JUNIOR VARSITY

GIRLS

SANDPOINT RESULTS — 2, Kora Converse, 23:54. 3, Tiffany Brown, 24:35. 4, Terra Bode, 24:59. 14, Madison Hall, 28:18.

BOYS

TEAM SCORES — 1, Mt. Spokane 38. 2, Sandpoint 44. 3, Moscow 46. 4, Pullman 172. 5, Lewiston 179. 6, Coeur d’Alene 198. 7, College Place 215. 8, Pasco 22. 9, Kiona-Benton 247. 10, Joel Ferris 254. 11, Timberlake 283. 12, Hanford 284. 13, Richland 343. 14, Royal 391. 15, Toppenish 468.

SANDPOINT RESULTS — 4, Kasten Grimm, 19:24. 6, Anders Eastley, 19:40. 8, Keane Haesle, 19:57. 9, Klein Fragoso, 20:02. 17, Fletcher Barrett, 20:25. 19, Isaac Babin, 20:33. 20, Connor McClure, 20:35. 47, Isaiah Hagstrom, 22:09. 51, Gavin Jasper, 22:15. 59, Ethan Barcklay, 22:42. 79, Torin Haesle, 23:36. 98, William Dotson, 24:08.