Polson cross country teams have good personal showings at state

MISSOULA — Despite some strong individual performances, the Polson boys' and girls' cross country teams finished less than favorably at the Missoula invite last week. The boys came in 11th out of 18 teams and the girls were in the bottom tier as well taking 15th out of 17.

Sophomore Logan Torgison's finish to third place highlighted the boys' race.

"We talked just before the meet and he told me he was committed to taking risks and going for the win," head coach Matt Seeley recalled.

After a fast first half mile, Torgison quickly found himself in a select group of eight leaders by the end of the one mile mark. Torgison eventually pushed himself into second place but slipped back to third after fatigue set in and was in a competitive race against Browning's Jeremy Yellow Owl. Torgison gave it an extra push to beat Yellow Owl by less than a second.

"It was an incredible effort for a sophomore with two more title shots in his future," Seeley said.

Seeley admits that the team was disappointed with their times, but he said they should feel good about ending the season with some strong races.

Kevin Love finished his cross country career with a near best time of 17:25. Chris Ogle came in third for his team with 1759. Ray Dalke (18:21.85) and Nathan Poukish (18:38.64) rounded out the top five placers.

Missing in action was the girls' team leader Alex Noble who sat the competition out due to a bad knee injury.

"It was very difficult for Alex to sit out, but her knee was pretty bad and she just didn't want to risk a more serious damage," he said.

NaTesha Arlint came in first out of her team with 22:03. Kali Cook got 22:04 to fill the two spot. Emily Pyles (22:51) Kelsey Delaney (23:02) and Heidi Hunsucker (23:13) filled the three, four and five spots.

Seeley said all the girls pushed themselves, but fell short of some of their goals.

"We still have a young team with lots of potential and I hope this experience serves to motivate them to work hard and come back even stronger next year," Seeley said. "With Ronan's incredible success just down the road, we have a great conference rival and lots of room for improvement."

The team will have some good returning talent next year, because it won't be losing to many runners to graduation. Look for Torgison to be one of the standouts in the state again next year.