Runners take fourth at Ronan Invitational
Hungry Horse News
At the Ronan Invitational last Thursday, the Columbia Falls runners showed marked improvements across the board and both teams finished fourth.
Individually for the Wildcats, Brian Merseal finished 11th in 17:44, with three other runners joining him in the top 25. Dalvin Averill came in at 13th in 17:57, Steffen Anderson finished 18th in 18:26 and Tim McCracken came in 25th in 18:40.
Boys coach Richard Menicke was pleased with how the boys ran.
"I was really pleased with the team's performance in particular because we ran our fastest team race of the year," he said. "We also had the tightest time difference between our first and fifth varsity runners."
Menicke said Merseal had "an outstanding race," and said that Tim McCracken and Michael Taylor, the fourth and fifth finishers, were "huge" in the success of the team.
In the junior varsity race, Jaffe Wilde finished second overall in 19.16 and Jack Scherman finished third in 19.21.
For the girls, Addie Houle was the top finisher for the third straight meet, finishing 19th overall in 23:01, followed closely by Jessica Dedman in 23rd at 23:37.
Head coach Steve Gasche said that the girls team was very competitive.
"We had our best race of the season so far," he said. "Addie Houle, Jessica Dedman, Chelsey Marjerrison and Ashley Forman all had season best times."
Gasche said that the team dropped the previous season-best cumulative time by 1:18.
"Nellie (Lutz) finished 1:30 behind Addie, which is our best effort yet from our top five," he said. "They placed fourth overall in varsity competition."
For the junior varsity girls, the team finished second, with Jennifer Hafferman, Brittany Calderwood, Angie Venteicher, Julia Meiners and Ashley Forman all finishing in the top 15.
The teams will run in Missoula on Saturday.
Spikers down Libby
By JOHN VAN VLEET
Hungry Horse News
There's no predicting which volleyball team will show up for Columbia Falls in any given match.
Some nights they struggle, like in the lopsided loss to Whitefish last week.
Others, they flourish, like Friday night when they beat visiting Libby 25-21, 25-22, 14-25, 22-25, 15-13.
The Kats (2-1,2-1) who got off to their customary fast start, faltered in games three and four before pulling out the victory behind Kate Marcille's service aces in game five.
Libby had been undefeated until losing this match.
Head coach Josie Brown was pleased with the victory, but has noticed a maddening lack of consistency.
"It's something that we as a team are talking about, what we need to do to be consistent all the way through the match," she said.
Brown mentioned passing and serve receiving as two things the girls must work on the establish a string of strong performances.
"In practice we're really working on our serve receiving," she said. "We haven't been able to be consistent on our passing."
Despite the inconsistent play, Brown was pleased with the way the girls rallied in the fifth game to take the match.
"I think coming out with the win in the end was good," she said. "Being able to play some long really tough matches and coming out with what they need to win (was important)."
Against Libby, Monica Burns led the Kats with nine kills and six blocks as her sister Donna tallied 44 digs. Kate Marcille led the Kats with seven aces and 23 assists.
The Wildkats take on Polson Friday at 7 p.m. in another Northwestern A conference match.