Bulldog XC does well at meet
LEWISTON — The Sandpoint Bulldogs had a strong showing at the Inland Empire Championships in Lewiston in cross country action on Saturday.
The Sandpoint High School girls team finished eighth as a team, with 22 full teams and 176 competitors racing, and the JV team finished fourth out of nine teams and 80 competitors. In the men's race, the varsity team finished 11th out of 30 and the JV team finished sixth out of 17.
"[It was] a bigger meet than their normal invite, as the state meet is there this year, so quite a few schools from the south came to get a race in at the venue in advance of Oct. 29 state meet," Sandpoint High School girls coach Angie Brass said.
Maren Davidson and Lily Richards led the pack for the Sandpoint on Saturday, finishing the 5K in 19:30 for 29th; and 19:41 for 35th respectively. The times are overall personal records for both.
"Maren ran a well-paced, smart race on a fast, track-like XC Course, utilizing her track strengths and speed for a great outcome and contribution to her gals," Angie Brass said.
Davidson's time puts her No. 12 on the all-time SHS 5K list.
Teammate Lily Richards put together another great race as well, "with a very focused last lap of the three-lap course, grinding it out to a 19:41. Richard now sits at No. 17 on the team's all-time 5K list."
Next in for Sandpoint was Ara Clark (20:20, 60th), who Brass said had "a rough day from the gun, but fought to keep Moscow's No. 2 runner behind her."
Grace Rookey and Payton Betz - both coming back from illness had a chance to get on the regional and state course, with more opportunities ahead - ran 20:44 and 21:04. Izzy Davidson ran a personal best of 21:55 and "continues to learn and apply it all," Brass said.
Teammate Terra Bode, also coming off of sickness, finished 7th for the Bulldogs at 23:07.
In the girls JV race, Makiyah Hagstrom, Silvi Landrum and Hazel Landrum were a powerful trio up front, packing up and covering the course in personal record time for all, Brass said.
Hagstrom pulled away in the final stretch, running 22:25 (16th), Landrum 22:30 (17th) and Landrum 22:32 (19th).
"The power of the pack and teammates was evident and incredible to watch," she added.
Next in was Hannah Ricks (24:27, 34th, also a personal best), Emma Darrin and Maddie Hall came in next 25:14 and 25:24, Flavia Widmer 27:15 and Alice Davison 31:41 rounded out the JV girls team.
In the boys varsity race, Sandpoint boys coach Matt Brass said the top 3 executed very well and had very good places and times for this part of the season.
Nathan Roche led with a 16:16 for 23rd place. Dan Ricks continued to improve, running a 16:24 and moving with the No. 12 time ever for Sandpoint High School cross country, and Slate Fragoso was third for the team with a time of 16:46.
"Both Slate and Nate have moved close to their overall PR times and are running very well," Brass said. "The mid-pack for the boys allowed themselves to get caught in the pack early on and never recovered. They ran well in terms of time, but weren't as competitive as we will need them to be in the coming weeks."
When removing all teams out except 4A, Roche was ninth and Ricks was 16th, which puts them both in medal contention at the state meet later this month, he said.
In the boys JV race, 11 out of the 14 runners ran personal bests, led by Klein Fragoso with a 17:50. The JV team was aggressive and ran extremely well.
