Polson's Delaney wins Flathead Invite cross country

Polson’s Morgan Delaney is enjoying a fast start to cross country season, and the same can be said about the Helena Bengals.

Delaney was the girls individual champion at the Flathead Invitational held Friday at Rebecca Farm, while Helena — with Milo Kauffman first in the boys race — swept the team titles. 

The meet drew 21 full boys and 17 girls programs, including seven Class AA schools. Helena’s girls, which placed 10-11-13-14-16, scored 64 points to 91 for Missoula Hellgate and 104 for Missoula Hellgate. Polson was fourth at 106 and Glacier was fifth at 111. 

The Pirates’ Delaney won in 17 minutes, 32.25 seconds — not far off her personal-record 17:23.6 run in Libby last week — and her sister Quinn Delaney was fifth at 18:18.82. It was a quick race, with Hellgate’s Reed Stromberg second and Glacier’s Lauren Bissen (17:49.90) and Ada Thiel (18:17.68) going 3-4. 

Libby’s Capri Farmer was sixth, running a PR of 18:24.31. 

Flathead was eighth in the team standings; juniors Emery Eash and Everett Holland finished 24-26. 

Helena’s boys had a more impressive score than its girls: 50 points, led by a 1-5-7 finish. Hellgate was second at 111 and Glacier was a narrow third at 114, followed by Sentinel (150) and Flathead (171). 

Kauffman’s time was 15:20.49 and put him almost 12 seconds ahead of Hellgate’s Miles Miller. 

Other top finishers included John Jermyn of Plains in fourth, Polson’s Jackson Bontadelli in seventh and Glacier’s Gabe Ackerly in ninth. 

Ackerly (16:00.57) and teammate Max Mangold (15th in 16:19.22) led the Wolfpack; just out of the top 15 was Flathead’s Chris Holland and Brodyn DeShaw, who were 17th and 18th in 16:28.39 and 16:35.98. 

Whitefish freshman Porter Shehan (11th) and Libby’s Cody Watson (14th) also had top-15 finishes. 

Full results can be found at athletic.net. 

    Polson's Jackson Bontadelli nears the finish line at the Flathead Invitational at Rebecca Farm on Friday, Sept. 4. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)  Arlee’s Ava Van Maanen competes in the Flathead Invitational at Rebecca Farm on Friday, Sept. 4. (Christa Umphrey photo)