Hawk harriers host XC meet at River's Bend

The Thompson Falls Invitational is always a cool cross country race to participate in.

After all, you have the spacious, green fairways and the serene Clark Fork River flowing by, all under the brow of the forested splendor of Flat Iron Ridge, River's Bend golf course is just kind of a cool place to be at any time; but that wasn't what made the Thompson Falls Invite so cool this time around last Thursday.

No, the weather is what made the day at this year's local XC meet.

"Finally, some cooler, cloudy weather!" Thompson Falls coach Sarah Naegeli said. "That was probably the best course news of the day for the runners."

Taking advantage of the weather and the beautiful surroundings, Josey Neesvig and Rachel Ribeiro fought their way through an eventful race – Neesvig fell on the hill portion of the course and Ribeiro arrived at the finish line with "war wounds from the race; bloody shins from getting kicked or spiked," Naegeli said – to lead the Lady Hawk high school team, with Neesvig winning 12th in 21:29 and Ribeiro clocking 23:34.

Megan Baxter (26:15), Kacey VanZanten(29:37), Reagan Hanks (33:14) and Pris Sommers (41:13) followed Neesvig and Ribeiro in for the Lady Hawks. Naegeli had praise for Baxter and VanZanten, "Megan is coming into her own as a runner," she said, "and Kacey was running in her first official race, and comes in with a state qualifying time."

Covering the River's Bend course in a lifetime best time of 19:26, Justin Morgan led the high school boys in, with Ben Beauchman coming in next at 21:03, followed by Wyatt Griffith (21:17), Nathan Burwig (21:34), Erik Melendez (22:13), Nick Viera (22:50), Marc Boyd (23:54) and Ben Croft (27:28).

Naegeli said Beauchman and Croft dropped two minutes off their previous best times and that "Marc has been really pushing himself and dropped another minute as well."

Hattie Neesvig and Ellie Baxter were the stars of the day with the junior high runners, coming in third and fourth in the girls race (Neesvig timed out in 13:39 and Baxter in 13:41), with Faith Palmer (15:14), Madison Toyias (19:43) and Alex Olesen (21:18) following.

The steadily improving Cael Thilmony led the junior high boys with a 12th place run of 13:58, Levi Meyers clocked 14:40, JJ Fields 16:03 and Declan Harris 16:32.

Thompson Falls junior high coach Sarah Stover was pleased. "Five junior high runners in the top 20!" she said of Hattie Neesvig, Baxter, Palmer, Thilmony and Meyers. "It's great to have Hattie healthy again and what a race she ran, and Ellie is a tough runner, she really pushed through the pain."

Neesvig and Baxter have both been battling injury problems so far this season. Stover added that Thilmony's time was some 40 seconds better than his previous lifetime best.

Now that the coolness of the Thompson Falls Invitational has passed, it's time to get back to some hot racing in other venues. The Hawks were set to run in Whitefish Tuesday and will participate in the Mountain West Invitational, always one of the biggest cross country races in Montana during any season, at the University of Montana golf course in Missoula Saturday.

Several new records were set in the Thompson Falls Invite. James Normandeau of Ronan won the boys race in a record time of 16:51 while Beatrix Frissell of Polson set a new girls' mark of 19:38 in wining that race.

Emily Maughan of Seeley-Swan won the junior high girls' race in a new-record time of 13:00.