Losing just one senior to graduation has the Glacier girls thinking big, and don’t sleep on the Wolfpack boys, either, as they head into Friday’s Flathead Invitational cross country meet.

Glacier already has a meet — the Libby Invitational — under its belt heading into today’s action at Rebecca Farm, though a few girls who ran at last year’s state championships have yet to compete. 

The list includes sophomore Ada Thiel, who surged at the end for a 1-2 finish at state with senior teammate Lauren Bissen. 

That alone should give Glacier confidence for this season, which ends with the state championships in Billings. Then you add in sophomore Jamie Murphy, who like Thiel didn’t have enough practices, and two soccer players — sophomore Caitryn Vander Vloedt and junior Hailey Fiala — that had conflicts and the Pack are pretty loaded. 

Anika Ackerly, another sophomore, ran at state; juniors Raya Gronley, Miel Newton and sophomores Kaia Ridgeway, Mesa Lee and Raelyn Keller competed in Libby last week.  

“There’s a good depth in the girls squad. I’m excited, it’ll be fun to have them all back and watch them develop,” Glacier coach Cody Moore said. “And they’re motivated, too; I think they’re pretty excited this year.” 

The key, Moore said, is not to rely on another 1-2 finish by Bissen and Thiel. It’s a team sport and nobody needs to be, in his words, superhuman. 

“The girls are just doing the things they need to do to get a little bit better,” he said. “Everybody taking that one extra step forward as a team.” 

The boys team lost a pair of excellent seniors in Owen Thiel and Jude Sparkman, but four seniors — Gabe Ackerly, Max Mangold, Charlie Slagar and Duncan Young — provide a nice nucleus for a team that finished fourth at last October’s State AA meet. 

Junior Nathan Turner and Ackerley finished 32-34 at state. 

“Really good core team coming back,” Moore said. “Four boys that could all be top 10, 15 or 20 on the right day. And that’s what it will take to get on the podium, is a real tight group.” 

 In Libby, freshman Shaw Simpson ran well in his varsity debut and sophomore Nolan Bissen — that’s a familiar last name — capped a group of five runners between places 16-33.