Three Badgers medal at Ivan Benson Invite

PRIEST RIVER — Three Badgers medaled at the Priest River High School’s Ivan Benson Invite on Saturday, Sept. 24, and the team keeps seeing improvement.

“The Priest River meet showed me a lot about how we're continuing to improve,” said Coach Tyler Warner. “Pre/post race routines are tightening up nicely and folks are starting to reap the benefits of the mental and physical preparation we've been working on all season. We're trending positively.”

Medaling for the Badgers on the girls cross country team and placing in the top 10 were Jayden Byars, Ceci Roemer and Sydney Beckle.

“[Beckle] posted a new personal record at 21:20, which is great, and all the other girls who raced were able to post season bests as well,” Warner said. “You could tell that [Roemer] was having a great race, too. She started aggressive and was able to maintain that throughout the course.”

Warner said he’s starting to see the girls team tearing down some mental barriers and pushing to challenge themselves.

All of the Badger boy runners either earned a season best or a new personal best time at Priest River.

The boys were led by Cole Phillips.

Warner said Philips is probably the fastest overall boy on the team.

“He is starting to learn how to pace himself over 3.1 miles and really race against guys in a way that is smart,” he said.

Jack Woods was next for the Badger. Warner said he is continuing to show growth.

“Micah Thomson also had a great day, starting to recover from a bout of illness a couple weeks ago,” Warner said. “He assured me he was going to be finishing closer to Jack and Cole, which he did. We were led largely by that freshman cohort, which is awesome to see.”

The Badgers were without a couple senior leaders at the race.

“For the freshmen to move up is good for our team. This was definitely a confidence booster for us heading into some fast meets the next two weeks,” Warner said.

Saturday, the Badgers are at the Inland Empire Challenge in Lewiston, which is a preview of the state course.

Warner said historically, times there are usually very fast as it has a great deal of downhill sneakily built into the course.

“It has uphill for sure, but when we look at the elevation profile it ends up being a ridiculous amount of downhill, which is fun and makes for a great PR opportunity,” he said.

The cross country team then heads to Pinehurst next Thursday for the Kellogg Invite, which is also a flat, fast course good for potential PRs.

“This is the perfect time for us to start putting pieces together and posting fast times,” he said.

Badger girls times: 4, S. Beckle 21:20.1; 5, C. Roemer 21:35.4; 10, J. Byars 24:38.5; T. Johnson 28:56.9.

Badger boys times: C. Phillips 20:14.5, J. Woods 20:17.8, M. Thomson 21:23.6, M. McCabe 22:39.0, C. Dineen 22:51, A. Hyde 24:30.1, N. Murray 25:06.3.