The Whitefish cross country team's second meet of the season saw tough competition and several personal bests, with solid improvement from last week's season opener in Libby. 

Whitefish girls finished 12th out of 17 schools Class AA and B schools at the Flathead Invite hosted at Rebecca Farm on Friday. The boys finished 15th out of 21.  

Sophomore Kendall Dye turned in the top performance for the Whitefish girls, placing 25th overall in 20 minutes, 21.87 seconds in the varsity 5K.  

Senior Sierra Gibb continues to run strong. She was the number two Bulldog in 45th place with a time of 21:50.60. 

Senior Sophie Douglas finished third for Whitefish, crossing the line in 23:07.38 to place 77th. Junior Jocelyn Bryant added a 91st-place finish in 24:01.63, while freshman Ellie Ward finished in 100th place with a personal best of 24:15.53.  

For the boys, freshman Porter Shehan’s had a promising performance, completing the 5K course in 16:05.77 for 11th place.  

Bulldog senior Ean Flynn also ran under 19 minutes, placing 86th in 18:59.60. Peter Schram (19:08) and Cooper Connelly (19:46) had great races and will bolster varsity going forward, Coach Richard Menicke said. Junior Alexander Keim followed in 102nd with a personal-best 19:39.80, while junior Marcus Mercer also posted a personal best in 119th at 20:23.29. 

Junior Mason Loeffler finished 113th in 20:09.89 and Senior Logan Covey finished in 21:03.56. 

Whitefish middle school crews had five young runners place in the top 10 in their respective 1.5-mile renditions of the Flathead Invite. Griffin Connelly, Oren Paschal, Lily Cox, Hana Fassnacht and Ainsley Crawford are speedy up and comers for the Bulldogs.  

On Saturday, the Bulldogs race at the Browning Invite in East Glacier. 

    Mason Loeffler strides into the finish line during the Rebecca Farm XC Race. (Seth B. Anderson/Hungry Horse News)