Bigfork cross country sets pace in Kalispell

Bigfork High School’s cross country team set the pace at the Flathead Invitational meet in Kalispell on Saturday thanks to sophomore Makena Morley’s near-record breaking first place finish and overall improvements from Bigfork’s competing runners.

“Right now we’re not all running varsity, so we have to wait until we go against some of our own class,” Coach Sue Loeffler said as she explained why they didn’t run as a team for the first official meet of the season. “If it was just class B, that would be different.”

Morley was just seven seconds shy of breaking the previous record in the girls varsity 3-mile run with a time of 17:47.87. The current record is held by Flathead High School’s Zoe Nelson, who ran a 17:40 in 2004. But, this was an improvement from her winning time last year of 18:02.

There were 56 runners in that race and Chelsea Olson placed 15th with a time of 21:31.51.

Ellessa Henion placed 17th out of 82 runners in the girls JV 3-mile run with 23:38.68. Emily Pataky also competed in that race with a time of 27:04.89.

Freshman Logan Morley placed 25th out of 58 runners in the boys varsity 3-mile run with 17:51.55 and Carson Cantrell was close behind him with 18:11.62. Loeffler said Logan’s time was the fastest among the class B runners.

BHS had five runners compete in the boys JV 3-mile run. George Gibson finished 34th out of 132 runners with a time of 19:42.64 and Chance Kittle was close behind with 20:05.40. Craig Cheroske finished in 21:03.74, Cody Johnson with 21:47.38, and Shad Pataky with 23:24.61.

Loeffler pointed out that Cheroske’s time was a major improvement as he managed to shave off 6 minutes from his time.

“He is just starting to understand how to compete,” Loeffler said. “It’s a new sport for him and he improved that much from going out harder and understanding what it’s about.”

Logan and Makena weren’t the only Morley’s kicking up dust last weekend, Bigfork Middle School student Bryn Morley placed second in the girls 1.5-mile run with a time of 9:28.02, just behind the winning time of 9:16.18 but well ahead of third place’s 10:04.84. Ana Pataky finished in the top half with 11:43.83.

Bigfork’s cross country team will compete in Ronan on Saturday at noon.

Depending on what Saturday’s competition looks like, Bigfork’s runners may get their first chance to run as a team. But, Loeffler said they won’t know until they get there and they might not get a chance to run as a team until conference.