McClelland, Graham lead Bulldog cross country runners at Farragut meet

ATHOL — For the first time in five years there was a meet at Farragut State Park, with 29 schools coming from around the state to preview this year’s state meet course, including 5A Boise Valley Schools Mountain View, Timberline, Meridian, Borah and Capital. Along with local teams Coeur d’Alene, Lewiston, Timberlake, Lake City, Post Falls and Lakeside, the environment felt like a state competitive meet and offered some fierce competition. 

The Bulldog girls once again showed amazing depth and tight pack running, placing 4th and coming out on top of all the Northern Schools, including three time 5A State Champion Coeur d’Alene. Southern power Mountain View scored an impressive 46 points to win, followed by Meridian’s 73, Timberline’s 96 and Sandpoint’s 119.

Senior Cori McClelland was the top Sandpoint runner, placing 13th, and running a personal best of 20:17 on the technical course. She was followed closely by Katherine Kaul, who ran a 20:18 and placed 14th, and Hannah Davidson, who was 16th in a 20:23. Rainey Woodward, Niah Brass, Claire Pierce and Sharon Rowe packed up tight, all running between 21:35 and 21:47 to finish out the team scoring. There were 126 runners in the varsity race, and all seven Bulldog girls were in the top 45 runners, showing the pack depth that has led to back-to-back state titles.

The Bulldog boys placed 7th out of 24 teams in a packed 5A field that saw Mountain View score 27 points, leaving second place Capital far behind with 105 points. Timberline was 3rd with 140, Borah 4th with 160, Lewiston 5th with 167, Coeur d’Alene 6th with 180 and Sandpoint scored 196.

Jacob Graham was once again top Bulldog runner of the day, placing 16th with a 17:10. He was followed closely by sophomore Fin Lund-Andersen, who placed 26th in 17:36. Clay Rasmussen, Cole Dillon, Mark Kennaly, Reilly Wolfe and James Bradley rounded out the seven varsity runners, and all scorers were in the top 58 of the 163 person race. The boys also scored wins over 4A rivals Lakeland and Moscow as well.

“While there is still work to be done, at this point in the season the boys are running exactly as planned,” said head coach Matt Brass.

In the JV races, the boys packed up again to place sixth in the meet. Sophomore Dutt Rogers lead team with an 18:59 personal best to earn a spot on varsity in the next race. He was followed by Sloan Woodward’s 19:28 and Peik Lund-Andersen’s 19:29, and Ike Rogers 19:49.

In the girls race, Farli Boden earned a top 10 finish with her 23:09, and teammate Dana Beaty was 11th in 23:09, and Erin Meek was 37th in 25:03 helping the girls to a 7th place finish.

Sandpoint will run their next meet on Sept. 19 at Hayden Canyon.