Hungry Horse News

The Columbia Falls girls cross country team took second in the Western A divisional meet in Libby Friday. The Wildkats were edged by Hamilton by a mere three points.

Mya Badger and Chloe Savoy were the top runners for the Kats taking 7th and 8th respectively with times of 19:52.75 and 19:54.83

Ashley Andrews was 16th, Marissa Schaeffer 18th and Claire Bates was 24th for the Kats.

Coach Jim Peacock was pleased with the effort and has high hopes for the state meet.

“If our girls do what they’ve been doing all season, they can enter that race with the confidence to be among the best teams in the state,” Peacock said. “We had a couple outstanding individual performances from the girls.  Mya Badger and Chloe Savoy led the team and made All Conference with their 7th and 8th place finishes.  We just had really gutsy races from all the girls.  They were solid.  They are fit, fast, strong, and confident.”

He also noted that Cora Hannan was out on a family trip and should be back for state. The boys took third. River Blazejewski rounded back into form after an injury slowed him down for several meets this season. 

He was seventh with a 16:38. Griffin LaRoque was 20th, then Lucas Peterson, Jack Phelps and Oliver Kress took 22-24th to round out the scoring for the Wildcats. Peacock has high hopes for them as well

.“It was incredible to see a cluster of our blue jerseys all clumped together and running fast.  I believe they are still improving and are very dangerous at the state championships on Saturday.  The state championship field is really shaping up to be interesting on the boys’ side.  There are six to seven teams that all have a chance for a top three team trophy.  I don’t know if I’d call any team a clear favorite to win either.  Any team that has their top five scoring runners all performing has a shot.  This is a fast field this year, and it’s one of the more competitive team competitions I’ve seen for Class A boys in awhile,” he said.

The state championship race is in Missoula at the University of Montana golf course. Girls start at 1:30 p.m. while boys are at 2:30 p.m.