Cross country sweeps regionals for 7th straight year

ATHOL — At this point, the Sandpoint cross country teams’ success at the 4A Region 1 championships can be compared to music producer DJ Khaled’s signature catchphrase “another one” as the Bulldogs boys and girls squads each claimed their seventh straight district title Thursday at Farragut State Park.

Both of the Bulldogs’ teams earned a spot at state with the victories. Its becoming a tradition for this program and the athletes are enjoying every second of it but something like this doesn’t just take months of commitment. It takes much, much more.

“What you see today is ... years of effort, work and love,” Sandpoint girls cross country coach Angie Brass said.

Boys cross country coach Matt Brass realizes the significance of this accomplishment and is proud of the team.

“It’s a level of excellence that we’ve challenged them to and its one of those things where they want to be the ones to keep it going,” he said, “so in order to do that you’ve got 12 months to build from one to another of being dedicated, consistent, getting your miles in, getting your weights in and paying attention to all those little things.”

The Bulldogs boys’ finished first with a total score of 17 which was 31 points ahead of second place Moscow. Junior Nikolai Braedt continued his dominate season claiming the regional title with a time of 16:28.

The top seven individuals from the boys and girls races advanced to state and junior Jett Lucas, senior Gabe Christman, junior Keegan Nelson, senior Seth Graham and sophomore Trey Clark placed second, third, fifth, sixth and seventh respectively to earn spots in next week’s state championships.

The girls team impressed as well despite having several runners sick at the event. Senior Bionce Vincent led the way claiming the runner-up spot to Moscow’s Laurel Hicke who won the regional title.

Senior Paige Davidson, sophomore Megan Oulman and freshman Ara Clark all earned individual spots to state placing fourth, fifth and sixth at the meet.

Angie Brass said she was pleased with her team’s performance across the board and is looking for her team to continue to improve at state.

“We always set the bar high but I think that when you set the bar high people reach it,” she said. “Its an exciting group that gives a ton for each other.”

Matt Brass said he thought the boys had a strong showing as well but wants them to work on getting their pack time down to 35 or 40 seconds instead of 50 during the time they have off before state.

It isn’t easy to expect a district title every year, but Matt and Angie use it as motivation to help their program continuously succeed.

“We tell them ‘you only got four tries at this if you start as a freshman it will go by quick so if you really want to be part of it and feed into the success and leave it better than you found it, what are you going to do?’ ”

Sandpoint will compete at the cross country state championships Saturday, Nov. 2 at Portneuf Wellness Complex in Pocatello.

Sandpoint athletes in bold

GIRLS VARSITY

Team scores — 1, Sandpoint 25, 2, Moscow 42. 3, Lakeland 65.

Individual results ­— 1, Laurel Hicke, Moscow, 20:08.6. 2, Bionce Vincent, Sandpoint, 20:39.5. 3, Bec Kirkland, Moscow, 20:40.3. 4, Paige Davidson, Sandpoint, 20:56.4. 5, Megan Oulman, Sandpoint, 21:20.1. 6, Ara Clark, Sandpoint, 21:21.9. 7, Kailani Gilbert, Lakeland, 21:31.6. 8, Maddie Morgan, Sandpoint, 22:06.5. 9, Sydnee Hostetler, Lakeland, 22:12.2. 10, Elliot Benson, Moscow, 22:13.6.

BOYS VARSITY

Team scores — 1, Sandpoint 17. 2, Moscow 48. 3, Lakeland 81.

Individual results — 1, Nikolai Braedt, Sandpoint, 16:28.0. 2, Jett Lucas, Sandpoint, 16:36.5. 3, Gabe Christman, Sandpoint, 16:50.6. 4, Korben Bujnicki, Moscow, 16:54.7. 5, Keegan Nelson, Sandpoint, 17:10.4. 6, Seth Graham, Sandpoint, 17:21.6. 7, Trey Clark, Sandpoint, 17:23.4. 8, Brady Nelsen, Sandpoint, 17:26.9. 9, Tyler McNamee, Sandpoint, 17:35.4. 10, Ben Ricks, Sandpoint, 17:38.4.