In what could well be a preview of post-season battles to come, Thompson Falls girls edged Plains girls by one team point in the Arlee Hatchery Run this past Friday.

Plains standout Marina Tulloch won the girls’ race covering the 3.1-mile course in 19:40.44.  Third place went to Thompson Falls sophomore Audrey Fairbank (21:52.73) as both Sanders County teams dominated the top 15 places among the 23 runners who took part. 

"The course had it all - pavement, dust, fields, dust, grass along the creek, and more dust," said T Falls head cross-country coach Sarah Naegeli.

Trotters runners placed first, third, fifth, ninth and tenth, while the T Falls harriers occupied second, fourth, sixth, seventh and eighth.  The Lady Hawks had 27 team points, while Plains tallied 28. 

Plains won the boys competition at Arlee, with a score of 25, well ahead of second-place St. Ignatius, which had 89 points. 

The St. Ignatius’ Harlon Leischman won the boys individual race with a time of 17:12.38, edging Plains standout freshman Owen John Jermyn, who was timed at 17:17.46, good for second place. 

The Plains boys occupied second, fourth, fifth, sixth, eighth and eighteenth in winning the team title.  Thompson Falls boys team placed fifth, led by their standout freshman, Weston Block, who was twelfth with a time of 19:44.36. 

In addition to Block, T Falls runners placed sixteenth, twenty-second, twenty-eighth, twenty-ninth and thirty eighth. 

Trotters girls, in addition to Tulloch, were: Savanah Costner (fourth) 21:55.67; Ireland Corbin (ninth) 23:00.46; Tia Bellinger (fourteenth) 24:21.03; and Annika Ercanbrack (fifteenth) 24:33.47. 

Top placers for Thompson Falls, in addition to Fairbank were: Aubrey Baxter (eighth) 22:36.75; Lexi Franck (tenth) 23:24.56; Evalyn Edwards (eleventh) 23:35.22; and Peighton Kenney (thirteenth) 24:08.03. 

Seven teams participated in the girls and boys competitions. 

Plains boys runners who placed high for the Horsemen included: Simeon Costner, an eighth grader who placed fourth (17:35.87); Cord Greer (fifth) 18:40.77; MIke Restroffer (sixth) 19:03.93; Kalem Ercanbrack (eighth) 19:26.20; and Brock Ryan (eighteenth) 20.45.74. 

Top Thompson Falls boys, in addition to Block were:  Blake Shusterman (sixteenth) 20:33.16; Nathan Baxter (twenty-second) 21:29.49; Luke Pastorius (twenty-eighth) 21:44.14; Tuff Ryder (twenty-ninth) 21:50.74; and Jakob Molina (thirty-eighth) 23:24.69. 

Next up for Thompson Falls and Plains runners is the Mission Shadow Duals at Silver Fox Golf Course in Pablo this coming Saturday (Oct 12)