Boys, girls take third at Polson Duels

A pair of thirds. Both the Columbia Falls boys and girls cross-country teams had their best finishes of the season Sept. 21 as each took third place in the Polson Duels.

The boys were led by James Ratzlaff, who took 14th at 18:19. Ratzlaff, who was coming off an injury, had his best race of the season. Top runner for the girls was Samantha Mundel, who was third at 20:22, just a second behind Polson’s Claudia Hewston.

“This was a fun event on a challenging course,” said coach Richard Menicke. “There were hay bales, other barriers, and a very steep hill to climb and descend on the loop course.”

Glacier High School won the boys and girls meet. Columbia Falls had the best score of the Class A schools in the meet. Columbia Falls travels to Missoula for the Mountain West Classic on Saturday.

Other Columbia Falls results included:

Boys

20 Zayne Brunz 19:18

21 Glen Morden 19:20

22 Winfield West 19:35

32 Kyler Burns 20:17

33 Storm Kemppainen 20:17

39 Qynn Ingraham 21:07.

Girls

15 Meredith Stolte 22:43

17 Allie Folks 22:55

21 Kendra Cahoon 23:30

29 Sadie Panasuk 24:13

30 Miranda Livingston 24:43

37 Brittany Swarz 27:02