Cross country team starts strong at first meet

MISSOULA – The Seeley-Swan Blackhawks ran the new 5K course at Big Sky High School for the first time this year at the Missoula Couches Invite Aug. 30. The runners came out strong for their first race and are looking forward to a great season.

Due to the smoke last year, the team missed last year's new 5K race. I was anxious to see how the course had changed. Starting out on the northeast corner of the Westside Little League fields and racing around the grassy knoll, they abruptly took a right up a steep hill to the Equestrian Park for most of the run. The course finished on the Little League Fields.

This was a non-scoring meet with the high schoolers running against Big Sky, Hellgate, Sentinel, Plains, Thompson Falls, Saint Ignatius, Darby, Carlo, Arlee and Eureka.

Freshman Hannah Ayers ran without teammates freshman Sariah Maughan and junior Jayla Kauffman. She raced ahead of cross country state champion Gracie Lang of Darby for the first two miles of the race but tired legs slowed her down in the last mile. Lang finished first in class C in 21:25.81 followed by Ayers who finished second with a great time of 21:58.18.

All five of the boys competed with mixed results.

Dual athlete junior Caleb Maughan ran the most consistent mile time and finished first for the Blackhawks in 20:55.23. Junior Levi Reinitz also ran a steady pace and set a personal record over last season's state time finishing in 23:49.50.

Senior Logan Robinson was competing with the Hellgate runners and ran a five minute first mile only to see that pace fade over the last two-thirds of the race. He finished in 21:32.25.

Freshman Chase Haines started out well but found himself a little dehydrated and had to walk part of the course. He finished in 24:02.93.

Cordell Turner continues to suffer from a reoccurring ailment and wasn't able to complete the race. We are working on solving the problem as he is a good cross country runner.

The runners all make either tactical or physical mistakes running but it's definitely how they recover from them that matters.

Middle School Race

Eighth grader Emily Maughan and sixth grader Sam Ayers have been running with the Blackhawks and are doing very well with the 5K race. They each ran in the middle school mile and a half race in a field with racers from Missoula, Frenchtown, Darby and Eureka.

Maughan took my coaching suggestion and paced herself behind one of the lead boys. She was third behind two boys in the first mile at six minutes and passed the second with 400 yards left to go. She was right behind the lead boy, John Read-Smith of Missoula, and as he sped so do did she, outkicking him in the last 150. She won the race in an astonishing 8:37.53. This was after two separate bee stings that plagued her before the race.

Ayers ran a very even paced race of 10:54 which is an excellent time for a beginning runner. He and Maughan exhibit so much heart.

I'm excited about the running talent that is in Seeley Lake, both at the high school and middle school levels. We hope to have more on hand at our next meet at Rebecca Farms in Kalispell, Sept. 7. The Varsity Girls start the race at 2 p.m., Varsity Boys at 2:30 p.m., Middle School Girls at 3 p.m. followed by the Middle School Boys at 3:30 p.m.