Graham, Kaul lead strong showing by SHS XC team

HAYDEN — Coeur d’Alene High School hosted the Super 1 Cross Country Invitational at Hayden Canyon this weekend, with the Bulldog boys and girls posting strong showings among the 19 schools in attendance.

In the large school division, the Sandpoint boys and girls teams both placed second, with the boys team narrowly beaten by Coeur d’Alene 37-35, despite missing No. 3 runner Cole Dillon, who was home sick.

Jacob Graham was once again up front for the Bulldogs, placing third overall and first in the large school division with a time of 16:53. Fin Lund-Anderson finished sixth, Clay Rasmussen eighth, Mark Kennaly 10th, Reilly Wolfe 12th, Dutt Rogers 17th and James Bradley 18th to make up the scoring seven.

“The depth of the team showed as they were able to beat Cheney and Lake City, earning the 3rd place State ranking that came out this week,” said head coach Matt Brass.

The girls race was just as close with Coeur d’Alene edging Sandpoint 43-40. Despite three girls running with a cold, the girls still showed their pack strength and dominance that has earned them the No. 1 4A ranking in the state.

Katherine Kaul led the girls team this week with a fourth place finish in the Large School Division, and fifth place overall in a time of 20:13. Cori McClelland was fifth, Hannah Davidson sixth, Claire Pierce 11th, Niah Brass 17th, Sharon Rowe 20th and Rainey Woodward, who was racked by a massive sideache, was 24th to round out the scoring seven.

In the JV races, both the girls and boys ran outstanding, showing the overall depth of the entire team. There were 18 total personal records and 14 course records broken, which bodes well for the future of the program.

The girls team placed second out of seven full teams behind the solid running of Farli Boden and Dana Beaty, who were fourth and fifth overall, respectively. Also scoring for Sandpoint were Chloe Braedt, Erin Meek and Clara Sallent. The JV boys took third out of 11 full teams. The were led by Peik Lund-Andersen (8th), Sloan Woodward (9th), Daniel Radford (14th), Ike Rogers (18th) and Kyle Almeida (19th).

Sandpoint will be racing again next weekend, Sept. 26, at the Inland Empire Klassic in Lewiston.