THE FRONT ROW WITH JASON ELLIOTT: Questions mount as the seasons switch

It’s October, and there’s still questions about some postseason races.

No, not that baseball-related one on your mind these days.

A LITTLE later today, the Inland Empire Challenge cross country meet will be held at the Lewiston Orchards, site of this year’s state high school meet in all classifications on Oct. 29.

Most area schools will compete today, with Coeur d’Alene, Lake City, Timberlake and Coeur d’Alene Charter — among others — scheduled to attend.

Rocky Mountain of Meridian, which claimed the elite team title at the Bob Firman Invitational last Saturday, will also be at the meet.

Coeur d’Alene’s boys have won a handful of events and were ninth at the Firman meet last week.

Post Falls opted to compete at a Twilight meet in Marysville, Wash., against the best of the best from the state of Washington.

At this point in the fall, Post Falls senior Annastasia Peters is the best female runner in the state, holding the top time at 17 minutes, 38.4 seconds set at the Farragut Invitational on Sept. 10.

To be fair, the 5A and 4A schools will also get to compete at Lewiston Orchards for their regional meets on Oct. 20. The 3As will hold districts in Bonners Ferry.

Meanwhile, very quietly this season, the Coeur d’Alene Charter Academy girls program has three — yes — three of the top four times in the 3A ranks.

Senior McKenna Kozeluh (first at 17:57.4), freshman Annabelle Carr (second at 19:18.3) and freshman Helen Oyler (fourth at 19:54.8) are pacing the Panthers, who were seventh at state last year. Kozeluh won the 3A girls race last year.

And from what coaches have said about the Lewiston course, it is fast and will produce good finishing times.

How good, and for who, we’ll have to wait and see in the coming weeks.

TRY AS they might, the 2023 season might not end in the 15th NJCAA championship for the North Idaho College wrestling program.

You never know, but ...

With the resignation of coach Mike Sebaaly earlier this week, there’s a lot of unknown surrounding the Cardinals again.

It’s been since the 2019-20 season, Sebaaly’s first at the post, since the Cardinals have had a typical season.

Dealing with COVID-19 protocols throughout the 2020-21 season, then Sebaaly’s depature to serve as interim president at the school after the first weekend of matches during the 21-22 season, you can excuse a few distractions here and there.

As of now, athletic director Shawn Noel will serve as interim coach until a permanent coach is hired.

Hopefully whoever that person is has all the answers.

Or at least, knows where to find them.

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for The Press. He can be reached by telephone at 208-664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @JECdAPress.