21 Bulldogs post PRs at Battle for the 509, girls place third

CHENEY, Wash. — Sandpoint cross country shined Saturday in the return of the annual Battle for the 509 at the Fairways Golf Course in Cheney, Wash.

A total of 21 Bulldogs posted personal records in a meet filled with plenty of talented teams. Schools from the Greater Spokane League participated in the event along with the top squads from North Idaho, providing runners with lots of competition.

The field for both varsity races was massive. In the boys race, 235 runners crossed the finish line and 35 teams scored. On the girls side, 171 completed the 5K and 23 schools recorded team scores.

The girls continued to impress, taking home third, while the boys took seventh as a team.

It was the second straight large meet for the Bulldogs, who continue to take huge strides each week. Last season, Sandpoint didn’t get a chance to compete in a meet with more than 10 teams until state. Getting that opportunity back this fall is something the team has embraced, girls cross country coach Angie Brass said.

She said it’s important for the team to get a feel for how to compete in a congested race and she believes that experience will pay dividends when the state meet rolls around at the end of the month.

“You need to have a race like that, preferably more than one,” boys cross country coach Matt Brass said.

Junior captain Ara Clark moved into 10th on the girls all-time 5K list for SHS with a PR of 19:32.2. The time allowed her to place 14th overall and is currently 12th best in 4A this fall.

“She’s had an outstanding season and is running so strong,” Angie said. “She went out with the leaders in a top 20 position and just stayed really solid and consistent the whole way.”

Senior Mackenzie Suhy-Gregoire ran a 19:58 to take 33rd and senior captain Megan Oulman was under four seconds behind her in 35th. Oulman was about five seconds away from her PR.

Clark, Suhy-Gregoire and Oulman have all seen significant time drops on the Battle for the 509 course since they first competed in the meet a few years ago. Suhy-Gregoire has improved by over four and a half minutes.

Sophomore Grace Rookey and junior Payton Betz packed up again and pushed each other to PRs. Rookey grabbed 46th with a 20:33 and Betz earned 48th with a 20:38.

Angie said the pair had a fantastic race.

“They really work well together as a duo and primarily stay together most of the race,” she said. “They really help each other and sharpen each other.”

The top five for the Bulldogs all finished ahead of Moscow’s top runner. Those were the only girls that competed in the varsity race for the Bulldogs, who finished 48 points behind second-place Post Falls and 90 behind first-place Lewis and Clark.

“We didn’t run a six and seven [runner] because we wanted to kind of see that whole JV front pack together and fighting for some stronger times,” Angie said, “so that was intentional to just have the five in there.”

The move to improve Sandpoint’s depth paid off as Kora Converse, Terra Bode, Tiffany Brown and Devin McDaniel all recorded PRs in the JV race to carry the team to a third-place finish. Converse crossed the finish line first for the Bulldogs in 10th.

“Our top five JV, they brought it,” Angie said. “[Bode] had a massive PR and just a real breakthrough, so that was exciting.”

Overall, seven girls ran PRs for the Bulldogs. Angie said it was a great day from top to bottom.

“That course is a wide start and then it narrows down pretty quickly,” she said, “and with the field that was there and the amount of racers, it definitely is a much faster start and faster first mile, but all the girls did a great job responding, getting that done and then running really good follow-up second and third miles.”

It was sophomore Nathan Roche’s turn to lead Sandpoint’s front pack in the boys varsity race. He took home 16th with a PR of 16:41.3 to move into 17th on Sandpoint’s all-time list.

Over the last few weeks, Matt said Nathan has really been pushing himself in practice and he showcased that drive on Saturday.

“I think this is the race that Nate has been waiting for because he finally got his PR from last year,” he said. “He’s really starting to show a lot more poise and racing experience.”

Senior captain Trey Clark wasn’t far behind, securing 20th with a 16:45. Senior Ben Ricks was 24th with a PR of 16:52.

“With a race that big that funnels that quickly the boys kind of got jostled up a little bit,” Matt said, “and the front three did a really good job of finding each other.”

Junior captain Slate Fragoso, a key part of the Bulldogs’ front pack of four, wasn’t at full strength and placed 91st with a 17:47. Matt said Fragoso got sick this past week and was unable to run for four straight days, but he battled through exhaustion on Saturday and put forth a great effort.

“Before the race, he said, ‘I know it’s going to hurt, I know it’s not going to be my best, but I want to run,’” Matt said.

Senior Caleb Roche broke 18 minutes for the first time in his career to capture 97th.

“Caleb had a great race,” Matt said.

Sophomores Daniel Ricks and Kasten Grimm both recorded PRs to round out the varsity runners for the Bulldogs. It was Grimm’s first career varsity race.

With Fragoso dropping back, the boys finished 35 points behind fifth-place Moscow. The battle for the regional title is just over two weeks away and the Bears are eager to end Sandpoint’s title streak.

Matt continues to be encouraged by the improvement his team is making, but he knows they have to keep raising the bar if they want to fend off Moscow.

“The five, six, seven and JV [runners], they’re doing a fantastic job,” he said. “But part of it is they’re really young and we’re expecting a lot from them and they’re delivering and improving like they are supposed to, but for where we want to be at the end of the season, they have to keep making those jumps.”

The boys earned fourth in the JV race. Freshman Fletcher Barrett and sophomore Michael Hall led the way, placing 25th and 28th respectively out of 300 runners.

Overall, 14 boys posted PRs on Saturday.

Sandpoint and Moscow haven’t gotten a chance to see how their boy’s squads stack up head-to-head at full strength yet. Matt is hoping both teams are healthy when they meet again this Saturday.

“Hopefully what happens is we continue to make each other better, so when we get to state we feel like we’re really prepared,” he said.

The Bulldogs travel to Lewiston on Saturday to compete in the Inland Empire Challenge at the Lewis-Clark State College cross country course.

RESULTS

VARSITY

GIRLS

TEAM SCORES — 1, Lewis and Clark 57. 2, Post Falls 99. 3, Sandpoint 147. 4, Kennewick 154. 5, Central Valley 166. 6, Coeur d’Alene 216. 7, Walla Walla 220. 8, West Valley-Spokane 259. 9, Moscow 278. 10, Ferris 319. 11, East Valley-Spokane 320. 12, Pullman 347. 13, University 365. 14, Lakeside (Nine Mile) 365. 15, Gonzaga Prep 370. 16, Mead 396. 17, Deer Park 434. 18, Garfield-Palouse 434. 19, Lake City 446. 20, Cheney 447. 21, Ephrata 473. 22, Colville 491. 23, Rogers 581.

SANDPOINT RESULTS — 14, Ara Clark, 19:32.22. 33, Mackenzie Suhy-Gregoire, 19:58.88. 35, Megan Oulman, 20:02.60. 46, Grace Rookey, 20:33.34. 48, Payton Betz, 20:38.69.

BOYS

TEAM SCORES — 1, Mead 74. 2, Lewis and Clark 121. 3, Coeur d’Alene 131. 4, Cheney 187. 5, Moscow 213. 6, Gonzaga Prep 224. 7, Sandpoint 248. 8, Central Valley 250. 9, Richland 269. 10, Lewiston 317. 11, Post Falls, 368. 12, West Valley-Spokane 375. 13, Ephrata 385. 14, University 404. 15, Pullman 430. 16, St. George’s 464. 17, Lakeside (Nine Mile) 469. 18, Ferris 484. 19, Chewelah 507. 20, Walla Walla 521. 21, Rogers 526. 22, Shadle Park 549. 23, Davenport 577. 24, Lake City 596. 25, Asotin 675. 26, Northwest Christian 766. 27, Riverside 783. 28, Valley Christian 783. 29, Kennewick 814. 30, Colville 831. 31, Freeman 837. 32, Newport 891. 33, Deer Park 906. 34, East Valley-Spokane 1,001. 35, Chesterton Academy of Notre Dame 1,033.

SANDPOINT RESULTS — 16, Nathan Roche, 16:41.25. 20, Trey Clark, 16:45.02. 24, Ben Ricks, 16:52.81. 91, Slate Fragoso, 17:47.49. 97, Caleb Roche, 17:55.82. 109, Daniel Ricks, 18:07.88. 117, Kasten Grimm, 18:20.06.

JUNIOR VARSITY

GIRLS

TEAM SCORES — 1, Lewis and Clark 30. 2, Central Valley 57. 3, Sandpoint 66. 4, Coeur d’Alene 103. 5, West Valley-Spokane 153. 6, Gonzaga Prep 158. 7, Post Falls 211. 8, Ferris 217. 9, Mead 221. 10, Pullman 234.

SANDPOINT RESULTS — 10, Kora Converse, 22:34.97. 13, Jillian Primgaard, 22:45.43. 15, Terra Bode, 22:48.64. 19, Tiffany Brown, 23:06.32. 21, Devin McDaniel, 23:13.00. 121, Alice Davison, 29:13.74.

BOYS

TEAM SCORES — 1, Mead 36. 2, Central Valley 104. 3, Moscow 165. 4, Sandpoint 177. 5, Gonzaga Prep 185. 6, Lewis and Clark 199. 7, Cheney 217. 8, Lewiston 222. 9, Kettle Falls 268. 10, Richland 276. 11, Coeur d’Alene 289. 12, Pullman 317. 13, North Central 331. 14, University 392. 15, Republic 394. 16, Ephrata 398. 17, West Valley-Spokane 408. 18, Lakeside (Nine Mile) 409. 19, Post Falls 427. 20, Walla Walla 537. 21, Rogers 599. 22, Ferris 676. 23, Valley Christian 695. 24, Shadle Park 729. 25, Deer Park 750. 26, Riverside 788.

SANDPOINT RESULTS — 25, Fletcher Barrett 18:34.47. 28, Michael Hall, 18:40.19. 38, Klein Fragoso, 18:52.79. 42, Connor McClure, 18:55.62. 46, Anders Eastley, 18:58.99. 51, Keane Haesle, 19:13.12. 63, Isaac Babin, 19:25.08. 109, Jimmy Cornelius, 20:14.46. 111, Bodhi Lloyd, 20:18.33. 117, Isaiah Hagstrom, 20:24.42. 135, Will Jordan, 20:54.01. 151, Torin Haesle, 21:05.38. 158, Ethan Barcklay, 21:10.12. 171, Gavin Jasper, 21:20.54. 192, William Dotson, 21:49.02.