Herd of Turtles had solid meet at Thompson Falls last week

It was a great day to run for the Herd of Turtles this past Friday in Thompson Falls at their Invitational.

“Thompson Falls is a smaller meet on our schedule.  There were 20 teams present, but only 11 had a full squad in the boys’ varsity race, and eight teams had a scoring squad in the girls,” cross country coach Jim Peacock said. “Thompson Falls puts on a great event, and the course is scenic and strategic.  I was thrilled with the teams’ performances.  A full seventy-five percent of the team ran either a personal best time or a season best time.  It’s a fast course, and the Herd took full advantage of their opportunities to throw down fast races.”

 Varsity boys would secure a first-place finish with a total of 54 points of out 11 teams, significantly ahead of the 2nd finisher, Ronan, who accumulated 90 points.  The varsity girls would bring home a third-place finish of 8 teams, with a total of 71 points, trailing behind Whitefish with 59 points.

“They raced the varsity and JV events together but scored them separately.  The boys’ varsity won the meet.  It thought they ran intelligent races, understanding the compromise between finding position early and understanding pace.  Then, they ran competitively in the latter half of the race to score well.  I was particularly pleased with how well they packed up and worked off each other.  Our scoring top five are continuing to close the split between their finish times, while all getting faster, so their scoring potential is continuing to improve,” said Peacock.

Connor Jordan led the Herd once again, achieving a personal best time of 17:19 and securing the fifth overall position out of 93 runners.  Eamon Schule also set a personal best, clocking in at 17:27 and finishing in eighth.  

“Schule put himself on Connor’s heals, and then just hung on for the ride.  He did a great job keeping contact throughout.  Keian Moran, Braden Swope, and Gabe Coburn rounded out the scoring, finishing 16th, 19th, and 20th respectively.  Coburn ran another personal best time and is refining his abilities every time he races.

“The JV boys won their team competition as well, led by freshman Levi Ypma and Miles Colliander.  They had five runners in the top nine places which was fantastic to see,” added Peacock.

The girls’ varsity also had a really strong day.  They were third overall but raced shorthanded.  Tessa Pacheco and Gwen Watkins, both sophomores and first year runners, led the team and ran together most of the race.  Gwen finished 12th in 22:00.4, and personal record, and Tessa finished 13th in 22:00.5.  Right behind them, senior Hazel Alexander finished 16th in 22:17.  

“Hazel ran really aggressively and had a season best time.  She was less than a minute off her time last year on this course, and she was more than a minute faster than she was on this course as a sophomore.  Her strength and determination something to see,” said Peacock. “It was a productive day.  We’re improving.  We’re gaining confidence.  We’re gaining race experience.” 

The Herd will stay close to home this upcoming week as they will be at Rebecca Farms on Thursday for the Glacier Cross Country Invite with the high school races starting at 2 p.m.