Cross Country: Falk takes sixth at divisionals

Libby High School foreign-exchange student Nikola Falk continued to collect hardware on this fall’s regional cross country circuit by placing sixth at Saturday’s Northwestern A Divisional at Pablo.

Falk finished six seconds behind Whitefish’s Carly Schwickert for fifth place and was within 17 seconds of third-place Loni Hanson, also of Whitefish.

“The course was difficult; the second and third mile had some pretty good hills and side hills in them, so the course was actually a little slower,” LHS coach Rod Tempel said. “She ran really well at 20:34.”

Falk hopes to finish among the top 10 at this week’s state meet in Missoula.

“She’s going to have her work cut out for her to place in the top 10 at state but she’s capable,” Tempel said.

Elizabeth Rodgers (29th, 27:49) and Michelle Hanson (49th, 34:02) also competed for the Logger girls.

Jacob Thomas missed a top 10 finish by 16 seconds in the boys race. The Libby sophomore came in with a time of 18:05 to place 11th.

“Only two seniors finished ahead of him so there are a whole bunch of good runners out there,” Tempel said. “He was about a minute-and-a-half behind the first-place runner so that’s what he needs to think about – trying to close that gap for next year.”

Kody Berget and Jacob McCrohan also had top 20 finishes at 19th and 20th, respectively. Berget finished in 18:37 and McCrohan followed at 18:39.

Others competing for the boys were Ben Graziano (25th, 18:58), Dylan Berget (26th, 19:14), Zeke Carlson (27th, 19:15), Trevor Hoagland (41st, 21:20), Kyle Stern (44th, 21:52), Chris Faulkner (45th, 21:53) and Jesse Nelson (52nd, 24:16).

As a team, Libby’s boys placed fourth while the girls did not have enough runners for a team score.

The Loggers head to Missoula for the state meet on Saturday.

“Last year, we were there for the experience and this year again, we’re there for the experience knowing that we have a bunch of young kids that need to see what they can do to be competitive next year,” Tempel said. “We have potential if we put in some miles.”