Hawk harriers run for fun in Mission Shadows meet

The Mission Shadows Duals cross country run is not your everyday, run-of-the-mill race.

It's run with a staggered start and lots of hay bales strategically placed around the course to produce a slightly disorienting effect on the runners. This season's Mission Shadows event, as usual hosted by Ronan, was held at the Mission Mountain Golf Course in Pablo Saturday.

"The kids never really know where they are relative to each other in the race (because of the staggered start), and there are a multitude of hay bale jumps on the course," Thompson Falls coach Sarah Naegeli said. "We've had some great races happen in those kind of conditions in the past, and Saturday's race was no exception."

Sophomore Josey Neesvig battled through the uncertainty of where she was at in the race and over the hay bales to finish tenth among the varsity girls in 20:47, Rachel Ribeiro clocked out in 23:32, Megan Baxter in 28:21 and Reagan Hanks in 33:47.

Ribeiro has been impressing her coach lately. "Rachel is a solid, consistent runner that we can count on to challenge herself in every race," Naegeli said. "She had a top ten finish in Mission (Tuesday in another meet last week) and a season-best time Saturday."

In the boys' race, Justin Morgan ran a personal best time of 19:26 to lead the Hawks, and Wyatt Griffith (21:13), Erik Melendez (21:18), Nick Viera (22:31), Marc Boyd (24:34) and Daniel Ryan (27:52) also ran well.

Manager Cooper Cable ran the open race and finished in an impressive time of 19:26 as well.

"Wyatt had a spectacular race at Ronan, and Nick improved his best previous time by almost a minute," Naegeli said. "Marc and Daniel probably showed the most improvement last week and are becoming more confident and finishing faster each week."

In the junior high girls' race, Hattie Neesvig turned in yet another impressive performance with a time of 14:22 to win seventh place, the steadily improving Faith Palmer clocked 17:44, Madison Toyias 20:35 and Alex Oleson 21:18.

Cael Thilmony led the Falls junior high boys in with a time of 14:33, Levi Tolley marked 15:43 and JJ Fields 16:58.

Hawk harriers also ran in the Mission Invitational Tuesday, Sept. 11.

Ribeiro led the varsity girls in in that race with a time of 24:50 to win eighth place, Roni Hanks finished in 31:38 and Reagan Hanks in 34:37.

Morgan ran down a time of 19:33 to lead the Hawk boys, and Griffith (22:01), Melendez (21:39), Ben Beachman (23:00), Viera (23:50), Boyd (25:33), Ben Croft (29:45) and Ryan (29:54) also raced.

Hattie Neesvig ran the course in 11:04 for eighth place to lead the junior high girls, and Palmer (12:48) and Toyias (14:15) also ran well in the meet.

Thilmony (11:13) was the only Falls boy in that junior high race.

Naegeli is happy with all her junior high runners. "Hattie is a natural runner and has worked hard over the summer to be even more competitive," she said. "And we have two more junior high runners who have improved tremendously since last year in Cael Thilmony and Faith Palmer. Their drive, competitiveness and performances are at a completely new level this year."

Normally one of the junior high team's better runners, Ellie Baxter was resting her legs last week.