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Cross Country team again performs well |
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September 8, 2014 |
by Tyler Warner
BFHS Cross Country Head Coach
Rarely in high school sports do teams get a
chance to have a preseason where they can
practice all the techniques and strategies they
learned during summer. Even rarer is the
opportunity to have a preseason in the middle of
the season.
With the cancellation of the annual Silverwood
Coaster Cross meet, Coeur d’Alene High School
stepped up to host a “jamboree” meet where no
times were kept, no team scores were given, and
no awards distributed. For the Badger cross
country teams, this allowed an opportunity for
novice and veteran runners to practice the
strategies they’ve learned.
This was also the first chance for the Badgers
to see how they stacked up against Intermountain
League rival Priest River. The girls raced first
on the three mile course at Hayden Canyon. The
course featured a variety of terrain which
included hills, wide turns, tight turns, flat
stretches, gravel surfaces, as well as trails.
Other teams at the meet were Lakeland and Coeur
d’Alene High School.
Just as the Seattle Seahawks have Marshawn
Lynch, nicknamed “Beast Mode” for his clutch
plays and hard running, the Lady Badgers may
have found a strong runner to lead them this
season. Sophomore Nicole Donn, a first year
runner, finished in 23:16, dropping three
minutes off her time last week. Perhaps most
importantly, she was the first Lady Badger to
finish and was the top 3A and IML finisher.
Following Donn were Victoria Smith (26:05),
Hannah Lysne (26:22), Makailah Dowell (26:32),
and Amanda Bauer (26:53). The entire Lady Badger
team finished before Priest River’s second
runner came in.
The BFHS coaches were excited to see the girls
perform well. While this early season
performance was a good indicator of things to
come, the season is still young and the only
race that determines who goes to state is
Districts. “The girls did a great job,” said
assistant Mike Tymrak, “but now Priest River
knows what we can do. We’ll have to continue to
work hard to have a chance in late October.”
The boys used the race to figure out the varsity
and JV positions for their next race. Jacob
Perkins led the way, finishing in 17:32. He
started out leading the race, but fell off the
main pack and yet managed to stay in the top 5.
“I started out going too fast,” said Perkins.
“That’s something I can work on for next
week—-finding my pace.”
Alva Swanson, after a great year of summer
training, posted a solid 19:06. He hopes to drop
into the 18 minute mark at Kellogg on Thursday.
Senior Tucker Cavender came in at 19:50,
followed by Nolan Stidham at 20:19. First year
runner, junior Jack Wade, finished in 20:33.
Rounding out the new varsity runners were Eric
Ellis at 20:35 and Freshman Dawson Thomas at
21:26.
Landing on the junior varsity squad this week
were freshmen Neil Martin (21:33), Will Colson
(24:24), Nick Magdaleno (24:15), and Andrew
McCoy (28:38). Sophomore Alex Urbaniak finished
in 25:10.
With hard work and good races, any of these boys
could easily jump up and take varsity positions.
Coaches like the depth they have, especially in
the young runners. If these freshmen and
sophomores continue to work hard and continue
cross country, in a couple of years the Badger
boys will be primed for great seasons in the
future.
The Badgers' next meets will be at Pinehurst
Golf Course for the Kellogg invite on September
11 at 4:00 p.m., and back at Hayden Canyon on
September 13 for the Super 1 Invitational
starting at 10:00 a.m. From here on out, the
Badgers will race for hardware. |
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