SANDPOINT — Sandpoint’s cross country season blasted off Friday with a dual meet against Timberlake High School at the Pine Street Woods Invitational.

The race was only 2.6 miles, a half mile shorter than most cross country races.

The girls' coach, Angie Brass, was excited to see their teamwork at play. “The girls ran well, packed up, working with and for each other for some great performances on a challenging course,” she said.

Brass highlighted the outstanding pack running out front for Sandpoint High School’s top four for the first half of the race and their strong finishes at the end.

Sandpoint junior Lily Richardson, ran the third fastest girls’ time on the course with a blistering 18:18.03.

Maren Davidson, Payton Betz, and Ara Clark all finished in 19 minutes or under. Timberlake’s first finisher, Izabella Cornell, got sixth. Sandpoint’s next two finishers Terra Bode and Izzy Davidson came within five-hundredths of a second of each other. Davidson took a big step toward varsity, Angie Brass said.

Makiyah Hagstrom and Hazel Keating battled it out for eighth place, with Makiyah winning out by less than two tenths of a second.

Grace Rookey, one of Sandpoint’s top five girls, was out sick this week. Another varsity runner out was Devin McDaniel, who is on vacation. In cross country, the top five are crucial because a team’s first five finishers determine their points. The team with the lowest points wins.

The points are the sum of the five fastest runners’ placements, so a perfect score (i.e. when your five fastest teammates are also the first five finishers) would be their placements added together, so 15. A varsity team is made up of seven runners, five scorers and two alternates.

Timberlake did not yield a full team so they did not receive a team score.

The boy’s coach, Matt Brass, was excited about the boys’ team performance. "The boys executed their race plans extremely well, especially for this early in the season. They packed up tight and ran smart, tactical races on a hard hilly course that requires a lot of grit to finish strong on. It was a good first race for them, especially when we were missing one of our varsity athletes.” Anders Eastley was out with tendonitis.

Sandpoint junior Nate Roche ran the boys’ third fastest time on the course, with a sweltering 15:01. He was followed by Timberlake’s Jacob Barnhart. Then five Sandpoint runners came in. Daniel Ricks, Slate Fragoso, Michael Hall, Jimmy Cornelius, and Kasten Grimm as well as Timberlake’s Josh Yeager and Cody Clemens came within just over a minute of Jacob Barnhart. Sandpoint’s Klein Fragosos rounded out Sandpoint boys’ varsity seven.

BOYS

Sandpoint 19, Timberlake 42.

1, Nathan Roche, Sandpoint, 15:01.02. 2, Jacob Barnhart, Timberlake, 15:23.4. 3, Daniel Ricks, Sandpoint, 15:36.05. 4, Slate Fragoso, Sandpoint, 15:52.16. 5, Michael Hall, Sandpoint, 16:03.3. 6, Jimmy Cornelius, Sandpoint, 16:16.3. 7, Kasten Grimm, Sandpoint, 16:24.09.

GIRLS

Sandpoint 15, Timberlake no score.

1, Lily Richardson, Sandpoint, 18:18.03. 2, Maren Davidson, Sandpoint, 18:29.58. 3, Payton Betz, Sandpoint, 18:41.57. 4, Ara Clark, Sandpoint, 19:00.25. 5, Izabella Cornell, Timberlake, 19:45.15. 6, Terra Bode, Sandpoint, 20:05.18. 7, Izzy Davidson, Sandpoint, 20:05.23.

For more results visit Athletic.net.