BFHS cross country battles large field at Farragut State Park

BONNERS FERRY — On Saturday, Sept. 8, the Badgers cross country teams made a trip to Farragut State Park for a 5K course (3.11 miles).

With 22 teams in the meet, including Boise area schools Borah and Capital, the competition brought in fast times.

The junior varsity girls team ran first, led by Serenity Fahey who returned after nursing a minor injury, finishing the course with the time of 27:58. Last week’s leading lady, Liliana Brinkman kept up with the field finishing strong with a personal record time of 31:08.

Ella Huggins came next at 32:49 followed by Elizabeth Bourassa at 34:24. Erin Dineen followed Elizabeth at 34:38. Girls JV winner was Lauren McKinnon from Capitol with a time of 20:59. Second through twelfth place were all runners from Boise High School. Boise, as a result, took home the overall team win with 20 points. Bonners Ferry JV finished 9 out of 10.

The next team to run was the boys JV. In his first season on the team, Oscar Valladeres finished with the time of 22:29. Justin Mendenhall and Conner Strickert ran together for nearly the whole race and finished in 23:24 and 23:32 respectively. The winning boys JV time belonged to Tyler McNamee from Sandpoint who ran an 18:18. Boise also won in team scoring. Bonners Ferry did not have a complete team for scoring purposes, but all three runners logged personal records.

The Varsity teams then ran, starting with the girls team. Abigail Gorton once again led the way with a time of 20:58, winning a spot on the top 20 podium at 12th place. Freshman Camille Ussher was next for Bonners Ferry with a time of 23:40. Newcomers Madi McIntyre and Emily Gorino ran together for the entire race and finished in 25:22 and 25:23 respectively. Rounding out Bonners Ferry runners in Girls Varsity was Lauren Onstott with a time of 29:45. Top girl finisher for the girls varsity race was Maggie Liebich from Boise with a time of 18:57. The next three finishers were also from Boise as well, giving them the team win. All of the girls in the top eight were under 20 minutes for 5k. Bonners Ferry finished 10 out of 13 teams.

Boys Varsity finished off the day with the fastest times of the day, reported Coach Tyler Warner. Sam Gorton led the way for Bonners Ferry with a season best 19:07. He was followed immediately by Hunter Smith at 19:10. Connor Alexander, Ty Grigg and Tyler Lucas were the next three in for the Badgers, running personal records of 19:53, 19:59, and 20:10 respectively. Austin Donn was the sixth Badger across at 20:17, followed by Levi Bonnell in his first Varsity race at 21:42. The overall winner was Nathan Green from Borah with a blistering 16:30. Evan ran a 16:15 earlier in the season, making him the sixteenth fastest male high school runner in the United States as of September 10. Borah got the team win, and Sandpoint was runner up. Bonners Ferry was 13 out of 17 complete teams.

“There are some exciting implications that come out of this meet. Abby Gorton, based on her time from the Bonners Ferry invite three weeks ago has the fastest time for Girls 3A so far. Also, based on times taken this season, the Badger Boys are ranked atop in the IML and fifth in the state,” said Warner. “This includes a handful of caveats — Timberlake has been missing one of their top two runners so far, but at Farragut, Bonners Ferry’s sixth runner finished ahead of Timberlake’s fourth. It is also worth noting that not all courses raced are equal, nor are conditions, and it is still early in the season. There is no telling what conditions will be like at Lewiston or who will improve or be injured or be eligible come districts or State. What this does tell us is that we can be quite competitive and should work hard to meet those expectations.”

Their next meet is away, on Sept. 15, versus Coeur d’Alene. The next home meet will be on Oct. 18 and it is the district tournament.