Lady Loggers finish top 10 at state

More than 350 runners from 63 teams turned up in Great Falls Saturday, Oct. 24 to compete in the Montana State B class cross country championships. Libby’s girls’ and boys’ teams had a good showing at the meet, placing ninth and 16th, respectively.

The Libby girls’ ninth place finish was led by freshman Lauren Thorstenson, whose 20:55 time put her in 27th place overall for the girls. Junior Colin Maloney paced the boys’ team with a time of 17:15, good enough for 23rd place.

With 186 runners from 32 schools in the boys’ field, the race was crowded. Coach Rod Tempel said there were points, especially early in the race, where runners were bumping and jostling each other to break free from the packs.

“You go to state, the adrenaline’s flowing,” Tempel said. “There was 186 kids in that boys race. It was a narrow start, with elbowing and pushing and jostling for position. Our guys were mostly caught up in packs with other kids until it thinned out.”

The girls’ race wasn’t much lighter, with 170 competitors representing 31 schools. The girls of the northwest conference, Tempel said, had a great outing at the state meet.

“It was a good showing for our conference,” he said. “Bigfork won. Eureka was third, and we came in ninth. I was really happy for Eureka, their coach has done a great job up there.”

Girls results:

27 – Lauren Thorstenson (20:55)

58 – Trinity Wallace (22:06)

71 – Anne Berget (22:32)

90 – Mikalyn Zeiler (23:22)

92 – Krysten Mossburg (23:25)

108 – Olivia Friss (24:02)

118 – Alee Julson (24:27)

Boys results:

23 – Colin Maloney (17:15)

68 – Tim Goodman (18:23)

114 – Niklaus Gier (19:46)

134 – Stephen Williams (20:25)

140 – Tanner DeHaven (20:31)