Ronan's Heiner claims medal at state cross country

By SCOTT SHINDLEDECKER

Lake County Leader

Ronan’s Brant Heiner had his sights set on a championship at last week’s Montana Class A cross country meet.

Heiner may have come up a bit short, but his head coach had nothing but words of praise following a third-place finish Friday morning at Rebecca Farm in Kalispell.

“He ran tons and tons of miles to get to this point and he has nothing to be ashamed of,” coach Noelle Winebrenner said.

Heiner had big expectations for the spring track and field season before the COVID-19 pandemic hit and cancelled the season. But he still continued to run.

Heiner was seeking to become the school’s first cross country champion.

He talked about his performance following Friday’s race.

“I felt great and my body feels good, but I wasn’t running in my normal race shoes,” Heiner said. “I have a bad heel striker and those shoes help with it, but they aren’t good in slick conditions, which is what I was concerned with and what we ended up with.”

Heiner didn’t want to make it sound like he was making an excuse, but the results proved what he was saying.

As he typically does, Heiner jumped out to a big lead at the first mile. He had run a 5:04.54, leading eventual champion, Hamilton junior Colter Purcell, by nearly 15 seconds. He had an even bigger lead, more than 25 seconds, over eventual runner-up Colter Kirkland, who also is a junior at Hamilton.

But Purcell led by more than 3 seconds after 2 miles and won with a time of 16:17.52. Kirkland came in second at 16:40.26, while Heiner ran a 16:46.80.

Despite the disappointment, Heiner dramatically improved from a 95th place finish in his freshman season to 34th as a sophomore and 17th as junior.

Heiner still has a track season, hopefully, left next spring and he has his sights on running in college.

“I’d like to run in college, but I’ll hopefully be able to go to a school which fits my running style,” he said.

Heiner had one teammate join him as a medalist - fellow senior Michael Irvine. He finished 15th in 17:04.78.

Ronan finished fifth as a team. Hamilton, keyed by five runners in the top 16, easily won state.

Mission Valley runners did well last week at the championships.

Polson senior Mason Sloan was 12th in 16:59.48. The Pirates were ninth as a team.

In the girls Class A, Lady Pirate junior Halle Heninger was a medalist with a 15th-place finish in 20:32.08. Her team was fifth overall. Laurel had five in the top 18 to cruise to the title.

2020 State A XC Meet

Rebecca Farm, Friday

Girls

Team scores

1, Laurel (Lau) 50; 2, Columbia Falls (CF) 70; 3, Hardin (Har) 82; 4, Corvallis (Cor) 92; 5, Polson (Pol) 153; 6, Whitefish (Wf) 197; 7, Havre (Hav) 203; 8, Hamilton (Ham) 226; 9, (Custer County) Miles City (MC) 230; 10, (Park County) Livingston (Liv) 239; 11, Frenchtown (Fr) 260; 12, (Fergus County) Lewistown (Lew) 312; 13, (Dawson County) Glendive (Gle) 327; 14, (Beaverhead County) Dillon (Dil) 341; 15, Sidney 438; 16, Libby 488; <5: Ronan (Ron), Stevensville, Billings Central, Butte Central.

Local individual finishers

POLSON (153) – 15, Halle Heninger 20:32.08pr; 30, Ashtyn Wagner 21:34.63pr; 34, Adison Carlson 21:52.53pr; 36, Maddilyn Huffine 21:55.12pr; 46, Karli Owens 22:17.41; 64, Katelyn Smith 23:21.67pr; 81, Isabel Seeley 24:11.76.

RONAN – 29, Olivia Heiner 21:29.68pr; 55, Brogen Youngren 22:35.83pr; 59, Kaona Trahan 22:53.15sr; 103, Nichole Koehler 26:40.09.

Top 15 individuals

1, Brynnli Poulsen (Ham) 19:02.30; 2, Andria Mourich (Lau) 19:53.15; 3, Hannah Sempf (CF) 20:00.84pr; 4, Lara Erickson (CF) 20:01.23; 5, Olivia Buoy (Cor) 20:01.94pr; 6, Carly Cook (Lau) 20:02.56; 7, Madison Harmer (Har) 20:12.31pr; 8, Katie Gleason (Cor) 20:16.08sr; 9, Dierra TakesEnemy (Har) 20:18.99pr; 10, Ellianna Wester (Liv) 20:27.07; 11, Grace Timm (Lau) 20:28.52; 12, Ellie Brown (MC) 20:29.17; 13, Lauren Taylor (Lau) 20:30.21sr; 14, Abigail Sherwood (Fr) 20:31.98sr; 15, Halle Heninger (Pol) 20:32.08pr.

Other NWA team individual finishers

C-FALLS (70) – 3, Hannah Sempf 20:00.84pr; 4, Lara Erickson 20:01.23; 20, Siri Erickson 20:40.57pr; 21, Alyssa Blankenship 20:41.55pr; 22, Emma McAllister 20:50.22pr; 31, Emma Upton 21:36.16pr; 76, Courtney Hoerner 23:58.88sr.

WHITEFISH (197) – 19, Paetra Cooke 20:37.49sr; 33, Raiya McCutcheon 21:51.84pr; 49, Maggie Pulsifer 22:23.98pr; 51, Alie Simpson 22:32.49sr; 53, Hazel Gawe 22:34.48pr; 62, Abby Priest 23:09.70pr; 68, Morgan Grube 23:39.93pr.

LIBBY (488) – 79, Aurora Smith 24:09.81; 106, Annika Benner 27:22.91; 108, Jossalyn White 27:29.73; 113, Katelyn Huff 29:29.62pr; 114, Raevynn Voss 29:32.13pr; 117, Savanna Sanderson 30:44.62sr.

Boys

Team scores

1, Hamilton 35; 2, Hardin 54; 3, Columbia Falls 152; 4, Corvallis 156; 5, Ronan 172; 6, (Fergus County) Lewistown (Lew) 177; 7, Whitefish 185; 8, (Park County) Livingston (Liv) 185; 9, Polson 189; 10, Laurel 237; 11, (Beaverhead County) Dillon (Dil) 277; 12, Havre 297; 13, (Custer County) Miles City (MC) 343; 14, Billings Central Catholic 428; 15, Libby 434;

16, (Dawson County) Glendive 479; 17, Sidney 489; 18, Lockwood 520; 19, Stevensville 590.

Local individual finishers

RONAN (172) – 3, Brant Heiner 16:46.80; 15, Michael Irvine 17:04.78pr; 27, Zarec Couture 17:45.33sr; 55, Dillon Omeasoo 18:33.01pr; 72, Elijah Tonasket 19:08.42pr; 80, Keyan PrettyOnTop 19:24.60pr; 91, Landon Bishop 19:48.20pr.

POLSON (189) – 12, Mason Sloan 16:59.48sr; 32, Ryan Dupuis 17:52.86pr; 39, Drifter Skillicorn 18:06.79pr; 52, Noah Roberts 18:31.20pr; 54, Aiden Gfroerer 18:32.97pr; 90, Sean Stewart 19:48.17sr; 99, David Bjorge 20:28.81.

Top 15 individuals

1, Colter Purcell (Ham) 16:17.52pr; 2, Colter Kirkland (Ham) 16:40.26sr; 3, Brant Heiner (Ron) 16:46.80; 4, Bryson Rogers (Har) 16:47.76pr; 5, Tanner Nead (Ham) 16:48.01pr; 6, Brinson Wyche (Cor) 16:49.97pr; 7, Ben Archer (Lew) 16:51.64; 8, Ben Steadman (Dil) 16:53.35pr; 9, Quaiden Whiteman (Har) 16:55.53sr; 10, Tegan MedicineBull (Har) 16:55.68pr; 11, Lane Cole (Ham) 16:58.37; 12, Mason Sloan (Pol) 16:59.48sr; 13, Charlie Serafin (Liv) 17:02.06pr; 14, Jalen HighHawk (Har) 17:04.38sr; 15, Michael Irvine (Ron) 17:04.78pr;

Other NWA area team individual finishers

C-FALLS (152) – 18, James Petersen 17:13.78sr; 30, Bailey Sjostrom 17:48.62pr; 33, Seth Umbriaco 17:55.50; 34, James Role 17:59.05; 37, TJ Jacobi 18:02.20; 69, Colin Smith 19:04.96; 92, Alex Branstetter 19:50.64pr.

WHITEFISH (185) – 20, Mason Genovese 17:20.78pr; 28, Deneb Linton 17:45.68; 35, Ruedi Steiner 17:59.96sr; 44, Nate Inglefinger 18:22.54pr; 58, Zachary Chiarito 18:36.91pr; 59, Landon Brown 18:39.33; 78, Jacob Henson 19:20.87.

LIBBY (434) – 66, Greyson Thompson 18:57.46pr; 86, Vance Ward 19:44.30; 94, Cody Crace 19:58.57pr; 95, Dawson Rose 20:04.95sr; 98, Lucky Martin 20:25.22; 110, Thomas Roark 21:17.82sr; 118, Rowdy Vaughn 21:50.64pr.