Pirates cross country teams make progress at meet
The Polson Pirates girls and boys cross country team each had one of their best races of the season at the Mountain West Classic in Missoula according to their coach Matt Seeley.
“On the hilly terrain at the U of M golf course, a full dozen of Polson’s runners managed to record their season’s best time,” Seeley said. “I was very impressed with how everyone competed under pressure of such huge fields and talented runners. Even our freshmen seem to know how to step up to a big meet. The hard training (our team has done) is starting to pay off.”
The girls finished third out of Class A Montana schools behind Hardin and Whitefish.
“This looks good for a podium finish at state, but our ultimate goal of a title will require a lot more hard work and significant improvements over the next four weeks,” Seeley said.
Bea Frissell finished in 39th place with a time of 19 minutes, 7 seconds.
“Bea ran a masterfully paced race and outdueled nearly all of her Class A rivals including the defending champion, but then we discovered an unexpected challenge from Belgrade’s Pippi Eitel who crossed the line 40 seconds ahead,” Seeley said. “We can consider that just another source of renewed motivation as Bea continues her phenomenal debut cross country season.”
Molly Sitter placed 88th in the competition with a time of 20 minutes, 29 seconds.
“Molly also ran very well to just miss the coveted sub-20 goal and cross the line 9th among Montana Class A,” Seeley said. “Naima had another PR and was the 16th finisher for that group. At this point, our top three girls can match anyone in the state.”
On the boys side, Quin Stewart had a strong race to lead the team in 182nd place with a time of 17 minutes, 36 seconds. Jonah DuCharme finished with 18 minutes, 3 seconds and Matt Sitter followed closely behind with a season best time of 18 minutes, 5 seconds, just outside of his sub-18 goal. Makauly Morrison was close behind with a lifetime best time of 18 minutes, 19 seconds that slashed over three minutes from his time in last year’s race.
“These guys are really pushing themselves in practice and it is starting to pay off,” Seeley said.
Some standouts for the JV runners included Kasen, who dipped below twenty minutes for the first time with a time of Micah Askan dropped almost three minutes from last year’s time with 24 minutes, 34 seconds and Trevor Sanderson had a time of 29 minutes, 13 seconds, a 4 minutes, 41 second time drop from last week’s race.