Hawks run in Big Sky Invitational

It's called the Big Sky Coaches Invitational, and it's a place where the cross country runners from small schools like Class B Thompson Falls can kind of get lost in the crowd in a sea of Class AA runners.

"Placing at this meet is kind of deceptive," Hawk XC coach Sarah Naegeli said. "When you compete against Hellgate, a team with 130 runners, you can run an outstanding race and still be back in the pack. Then add Big Sky and Sentinel and that's a lot of AA runners!"

Running notably well in spite of not being noticed last Thursday on a course laid out on the grounds of Big Sky High School, Rachel Ribeiro finished the race in 24:44 to lead the Lady Hawks in, while Justin Morgan, running in his first race of the season, paced the Hawk boys with a time of 19:57.

Also running her first race of the season, Megan Baxter was next in for the Lady Hawks in a time of 28:05, Roni Hanks marked a new PR (personal record) of 33:03, Reagan Hanks clocked 36:43 and Pris Sommers 39:05, a two-minute PR for her.

Nathan Burwig was second for the Hawk boys in 21:21, Erik Melendez finished in 22:05, Wyatt Griffith 22:31, Ben Beauchmann 24:29 (another two-minute PR), Marc Boyd 26:05 and Daniel Ryan 29:29 (yet another lifetime best by over two minutes).

Wisdom teeth and the Sanders County Fair also played a role for Thompson Falls cross country. Griffith clocked his PR time two days after having his wisdom teeth pulled, and Josey Neesvig, one of the top Lady Hawk harriers, was at the Sanders County Fair at the time of the Big Sky race and missed the event.

Morgan and Burwig, the team leaders for the boys, were running their first races of the season in Missoula. "It was nice to have Justin and Nathan racing again, they add some leadership and experience to the races," Naegeli said, "and their first races were a great start."

Naegeli was happy with her entire running crew in Zoo Town last week. "Lots of PRs from last week, which shows us that we should keep improving with some hard work and experience," she said. "I see lots of potential with this group and am looking forward to watching them grow and compete this season."

Naegeli said the Hawks have two meets scheduled this week, at Kalispell Friday and at Mission next Tuesday. "The junior high runners will compete for the first time this season Friday and that will be exciting," she said. "We have some outstanding returning runners (Ellie Baxter, Hattie Neesvig and Cael Thilmony) and some new runners that are ready to race."