Lady Bulldog harriers take third overall at Mountain West Classic

By DAVID ERICKSON / Whitefish Pilot

Less than 17 hours after being crowned Homecoming King, Whitefish cross country senior star Drew Coco ran the race of his life and proved he is the best runner in the region.

Coco set a Whitefish High School record and personal-best time on his way to winning the Mountain West Class invitational cross country meet in Missoula on Saturday. He covered the 3-mile distance in a blistering 15:07, nine seconds ahead of his nearest competitor.

The race portends good things for Coco, because the state meet will take place on the same course in a few weeks.

"His main competitor from now on is most likely going to be a stopwatch," head coach Bill Brist said. "That's not to say there aren't good runners out there, but Drew has taken it to another level."

Brist said that Coco's nine-second lead wasn't an absolute blowout win, but he was all alone coming across the finish line.

"He went out and competed with the top runners in the region," he said. "It was nice to see him in control. He ran with the leaders until there was a mile to go, then took off. He went out with a plan. It was kind of cold and calculating the way he did it."

Forty-five Class AA, A, B and C schools from Montana, Idaho and Washington sent boys to the event at the University of Montana golf course. Thirty-eight schools sent girls to the race.

Brist said his team has just started doing more of the speed-orientated workouts, so there's no doubt Coco will have the opportunity to run faster times.

Coco finished 13th at this event last year, with a time of 15:50.37. Coco is 4-0 at cross-country meets this year. There is literally nobody who can catch the kid.

On the girls' side, things are looking good as well. The Lady Bulldogs placed third overall, led by first-year break-out star Jackie Cassidy. She was 26th with a time of 19:20, followed by Stella Holt coming in 29th at 19:23. Whitefish star Loni Hanson, battling an illness, did not place in the top-30 runners.

"We had homecoming the night before, so we had to take a bus down in the morning, and a lot of girls were not feeling that well," Brist explained. "Loni left her breakfast somewhere on the side of the trail, but she came back strong and still caught up to a couple girls."

Jessica Sagen finished under 20 minutes for the first time in her career.

"That is one of the big time barriers that the girls say pushes them into the elite level," Brist said.

The Whitefish cross-country teams travel to Thompson Falls on Thursday.

Girls varsity individual results (268 runners):

26. Jackie Cassidy Whitefish 19:20

29. Stella Holt Whitefish 19:23

45. Jessica Sagen Whitefish 19:52

48. Bailey Eaton Whitefish 19:56

62. Loni Hanson Whitefish 20:17

73. Natalie Kearns Whitefish 20:28

84. Kelly Beiser Whitefish 20:43

Boys varsity individual results:

1. Drew Coco Whitefish 15:07

118. Patrick McGunagle Whitefish 17:24

236. Nathan Knox Whitefish 18:59

299. Will Holdhusen Whitefish 20:40

300. Dietrich Perchy Whitefish 20:40

301. Daniel Rivera Whitefish 20:42