Seems like Glacier High is saving the best for last. 

With the State Cross Country Championships looming Saturday at the UM Golf Course, the two fastest times among Class AA’s girls belong to the Wolfpack tandem of Lauren Bissen and Ada Thiel. 

Bissen, a junior, clocked 18 minutes, 02.3 seconds at the Bozeman Invitational on Sept. 13; Thiel, a freshman, ran 18:06.6 to win the Glacier Invitational last week at Rebecca Farm. 

Bozeman freshman Phoebe Maixner is right there at 18:08.3, but the finish of Saturday’s final race — the AA girls go at 2:30 p.m. — will have a Glacier flavor.  

And it seems like the Hawks and Gallatin Raptors are going to fight it out for the team title. 

That leaves Glacier, Helena and Missoula Big Sky to battle for a third-place trophy. 

“The whole level of the state is really good, on both the boys and girls side,” Glacier coach Cody Moore said. “It should make for some exciting races this weekend.” 

Moore likes his Wolfpack’s chances. 

“It should be pretty tight between the second, third, fourth and fifth teams,” he asserted. “I’ve been saying it’s hunting season for us. We’ re hunting for trophies on both the boys and the girls side.” 

Flathead’s Bravettes are young, with sophomore Everett Holland a good bet to make All-State. But the Flathead boys, led by sophomore Carson Thorne, have been grouping together well. 

“Collectively this is one of the strronger teams we’ve had at Flathad in the last 12 or 13 years,” coach Jesse Rumsey said. “We’re exctied to see what the’yre going to do.” 

Elsewhere Billings Central could have an individual sweep to go with A girls team title, at least according to the projections provided by athletic.net. 

Livingston’s Finn Schretenthaler has won the last two Class A boys titles, but it is Grey Piseno of Billings Central who won last week’s Eastern A Divisional and has the faster time this fall by 25 seconds. 

Likewise Polson’s Morgan Delaney won last year’s individual crown for A girls, but her best time this season, 18:48.0, has been bested by Central freshman Addison Kegel — who has run 17:08.7 as her best and 17:51.4 as her slowest this season. 

Several area runners, including Delaney and her freshman sister Quinn Delaney, have excellent shots to “podium,” — that is, finish in the top 15 and earn All-State status. 

That includes Libby sophomore Capri Farmer for the A girls; Polson senior David DiGiallonardo, Columbia Falls senior River Blazejewski and Libby junior Cody Watson for the A boys; and Eureka senior Benjamin Hughes for the B boys. 

The Plains sophomore tandem of John Jermyn and Cord Greer project to finish 2-3 among the Class B boys, but the Horsemen don’t appear to have the horses to break into the top three boys teams.