Blackhawks few but mighty on the course

The Seeley-Swan High School cross country team turned heads and earned recognition this past week. Sariah Maughan, Hannah Ayers and Jayla Kauffman placed first as a three-person team in Arlee, Sept. 25. Sariah and Emily Maughan placed in the top 15 at the Mountain West Classic in Missoula, Sept. 29 and Cordell Turner set a new personal record.

Sariah is now ranked third in the state with her time from Arlee. Head Coach Zelda Haines also learned that eighth grader Emily Maughan also set a course record for the two-mile middle school race in Thompson Falls with her time of 13:00.3.

Arlee – Varsity, 3.1 miles

Blackhawks Sariah and Hannah and Darby's Gracie Lang ran close together for the first mile on pavement. Then Sariah flew on a long down hill leaping across a group of tree roots separating herself from Hannah and Gracie. She took first place with a personal record of 20:19.47, just seconds a head of Gracie. Hannah finished third in 22:05.

Jayla finished in 10th place helping the girls win first place with a time of 29:14. She beat Elaina Wall of Arlee by almost two minutes.

The girls placed first with 14 points. They beat Darby, 25, Arlee, 30, and Two Eagle, 48.

The boys' varsity didn't have a complete team. They competed as individuals.

Caleb Maughan started out easy but turned it on in the last mile passing seven or eight runners. He ran his best 5K ever finishing in 20:04. He out kicked Jordan Usher of Darby, 20:10 and Andy Rasenbaum of Mission, 20:28 to place fourth at the meet.

"Caleb is not only a strong competitor in football but now has our fastest time on our cross country team," said Zelda "I'm truly impressed with the fortitude he has shown in cross country."

Chase Haines ran an easy 23:13 on the difficult course. He again beat Isaac Fisher of Arlee by 22 seconds. The boys missed Cordell Turner, Levi Reinitz and Logan Robinson who were unable to compete.

Arlee – Middle School, 1.87 miles

Emily paced herself behind the two fastest boys in the 1.87 mile race. She passed the Mission boy early in the race with just the Frenchtown boy to beat in the last 300 meters. She finished first overall in 12:37.29.

Kyla Conley placed eighth finishing in 15:22.06 followed by Tia Good in 10th, 17:20.32 and Tru Good in 11th, 17:49.54.

Sam Ayers was the only middle school boy for Seeley Lake. He finished in 13th in 15:36.32.

Mountain West Classic –Junior Varsity, 3.1 miles

The high schoolers ran in the junior varsity race so they could return to Seeley Lake for the homecoming activities in the afternoon. This was the coldest race Zelda could remember with temperatures in the low 50s with a constant cold wind blowing.

Sariah and Jayla were in the first race in a field of more than 600 girls from 65 schools. Zelda said the girls did not have enough time to warm up before the race started at 9:30 a.m., especially since it was so cold.

Sariah struggled with her hip and stiff muscles but still managed to finish 13th of 531 finishers with a time of 21:18.99, a 6:52 per mile pace.

"I still think I did really good," said Sariah. Balancing volleyball and cross country has been a challenge this year for her but she said running cross country has definitely helped her in volleyball.

Jayla said she felt good during the race. She was especially happy that she ran the entire hill this year and didn't have to walk like last year. She finished 374th with a time of 28:02.94, a 9:03 mile per hour pace.

Cordell Turner and Chase Haines ran in the boys junior varsity race with more than 700 others from 71 teams.

Cordell had wanted to get in the sub-20's but the hill took his steam. Before the hill he was hanging within the first 100 runners

"I felt amazing until the bottom of that hill," said Turner. "Then it was awful. I'm glad I don't have to run this until state."

He still set a new personal record with a time of 21:54.92, more than a minute faster than his time in St. Ignatius. He finished 444th of 716 finishers.

Chase hoped to beat his personal record but fell 11 seconds short. He agreed that the hill was a killer. He finished in 23:19.88 in 562nd place.

Mountain West Classic –Middle School, 1.3 mile

Sixth grader Sam Ayers was the only middle school boy. He finished in 10:04.74, 223rd of 401 finishers.

For the middle school girls, Emily Maughan just missed the top five with her sixth place out of 374 runners. She ran her first mile in 6:15. Bringing on her kick in the chute to the finish, she passed two other runners. She finished in 8:16.43 dropping her average mile time to 5:54.

Kyla Conley was next for Seeley Lake finishing in 10:09.21 in 124th place. She wished the race had been a two mile course. There were so many runners that it was difficult to get around people.

"Just when you can get to pass people it was over," said Kyla.

Hot on her heals was Tia Good who ran a 10:09.90 finishing 127th.

Tru Good had a strong finish in 10:43.43 setting a 7:40 minute mile pace. She finished 179th in the girls race.

"This was a huge race compared to what it was before," said Zelda. "They did awesome."