PRIEST RIVER — Sydney Beckle took first at the Ivan Benson Invite in Priest River for Badger girls cross country on Sept 21.

The girls tied in points with 4A Lakeland.

Sydney Beckle earned her first high school cross country win and posted her fastest time of the season at 21:08.76. Matisyn Stiern took second place for the Badgers at 21:57.39.

“Having Mati [Matisyn] come in right behind her and get a new PR was great for the girls team, too for scoring,” said Bonners Ferry head cross country coach Tyler Warner.

Badger Braylyn Bayer ended up pacing with teammate Ruby Law to a PR for the first two miles while also earning a season-best time of 24:31.86. Bayer and Law also medaled.

Badger sophomore Piper Banning PR for the second race in a row and fellow Badger Trina Johnson returned from injury.

On the boys side, Nate Murray and Jack Woods both posted season-best times. Jackson Fiedler continues his hot streak of earning a PR at three consecutive races in a row.

Cole Phillips also picked up a PR at 19:08.59.

Warner said his biggest thrill for the boys was seeing top Badger runner Micah Thomson dropping over a minute off his PR at the Priest River Invite, turning in a time of 18:43.72. The week before he ran a 19:53, with his last season PR being 19:52.

“Dropping 12 seconds off a PR usually means a kid was pushing a little harder and is usually pretty good, but to drop over a minute in a week is a testament to his hard work and dedication to the process,” Warner said. “He really took advantage of every condition to run that time.”

The Badgers have a week off of racing until Oct. 5 at the Ben Castro Invite at Pinehurst Golf Course.

Warner said the Badgers will take advantage of an off week to take care of some lingering soreness.

“I also have the long-term season goals in mind so we’ll definitely be including some tough workouts to make up for the lack of races,” he said. “So much of racing is routines and rhythms, so I’m going to have to balance rest/recovery with not letting them peak in the middle of the season and get too rested before Kellogg.”

He added he’d like to see Badger cross country runners do well at Kellogg and Lewiston but not at the expense of having spent their highest energy peak before districts.

The Badgers will have back-to-back races on Oct. 5 and Oct. 7 after the week’s break from racing.

“Having two races back to back is also going to be tough, since normally these races are at least a week apart and both are fast courses that kids want to get PRs on,” he said. “Going hard at Kellogg might mean not being able to go as hard at Lewiston.”

Warner cautioned there’s usually better competition at the Lewiston race, making it a faster race with runners more likely to push themselves.

“We leave [for Lewiston] at 4 a.m. to get there in time. So we may not be as rested for Lewiston as we’d be at Kellogg. We might have conversations with individual runners and see where they’d rather try to spend their energy,” he said.

“It’s definitely a balancing act, and we’ll have a similar balancing act after Lewiston because our next race, districts, won’t be for 12 days after that, so balance will be key,” he said. “The dichotomy of the next few weeks will be balancing rest with intensity.”

Ivan Benson Invite at Priest River

BOYS TEAM SCORES – 1, Lakeland 46. 2, Post Falls 47. 3, Priest River 65. 4, Kellogg 80. 5, IC Academy 131. 6, Bonners Ferry 133. TOP 10 – 1, Makai Peak, Kellogg, 16:48.97. 2, Austin Averette, Post Falls, 16:55.62. 3, Parker Sterling, Lakeland, 16:58.89. 4, Ryken White, Kellogg, 17:19.44. 5, Brayden Lamanna, Priest River, 17:26.32. 6, Colm McLaimtaig, Priest River, 17:29.01. 7, Cannon Simpson, Post Falls, 17:38.73. 8, Jayden Dan-Johnston, Lakeland, 17:46.26. 9, Frank McCarthy, Lakeland, 17:48.32. 10, Noah Wells, Post Falls, 17:53.77. GIRLS

TEAM SCORES – 1, Lakeland 28. 2, Bonners Ferry 28. TOP 10 – 1, Sydney Beckle, Bonners Ferry, 021:08.76. 2, Matisyn Stiern, Bonners Ferry, 21:57.39. 3, Melia Gilbert, Lakeland, 22:31.96. 4, Maddison Chapple, Lakeland, 22:47.55. 5, Alannah McLaimTaig, Priest River, 24:18.88. 6, Savannah Spalding, Lakeland, 24:21.09. 7, Braylyn Bayer, Bonners Ferry, 24:31.86. 8, Payton Sterling, Lakeland 24:48.54. 9, Ruby Law, Bonners Ferry, 25:08.70. 10, Samantha Guadagnini, Lakeland, 25:21.76.