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Cross Country: Boys' and Girls' teams place
second at District; both advance to State
Coach Warner named
Intermountain League Coach of the Year |
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October 27, 2015 |
by Tyler Warner
Head Coach, BFHS Cross Country
The Badger cross country teams made the trip
back to Farragut State Park on Thursday to race
in the Idaho District 1 3A Championships on the
same 5k course they ran back in September. Since
that meet, the BFHS runners had gained a lot of
experience and logged hundreds of miles, and
they drew on every inch of them in order to gain
a qualifying berth to state. In order to
qualify, the teams needed to come either in 1st
or 2nd place in the team scoring. The girls’
team had to contend with Timberlake and Kellogg
while the boys had to race against Kellogg,
Priest River, and Timberlake.
At 12:30 p.m. the girls started their race.
Timberlake’s Taylor Hammond set a hard pace to
keep up with almost from the start. A pack of
four Timberlake runners had Jordan Young sitting
in fifth place early in the race. After smart
running Jordan came into the last 0.1 mile of
the course in fourth place with Timberlake’s
Jamey Weisharr within reach. “Jordan came to us
from track as an 800 runner, so she’s got that
power to catch almost anybody if you give her
the chance,” said Coach Warner. Young dueled
with Weisharr down the course and passed her in
the last 20 meters. Her finishing time was 21:16
and a third place medal to go with it. Captains
Hannah Lysne and Nicole Donn ran near each other
for most of the race, locking up critical
points. Lysne crossed at 23:02 for an eighth
place medal and Donn finished in 23:22 with a
ninth place medal. Just missing the top 10 was
Ada Bonnell with 23:42 in eleventh place. The
final scoring Badger was Lauren Stidham at
25:09.
The Timberlake Tigers scored a dominant 18
points to lock up their trip to state. The
Bonners Ferry girls scored 43, good enough for
second place and the team’s second trip to state
in three years. Kellogg finished third with 75
points. The top six girls qualified as
individuals, even though they all also qualified
with teams.
(Story continues below this photo).
The tougher race would be in the boys division.
Timberlake has had a dominant program for years,
but the Badgers and Spartans of Priest River had
some close duels this season. At the Priest
River Invite, Bonners Ferry lost by a single
point. At the Kellogg Invite the week before,
the Badgers also fell officially by one point.
“We knew we were capable of winning,” said
Captain Alva Swanson. “We just needed the right
pieces. We weren’t all very healthy at Priest
River and they kind of surprised us at Kellogg.
They have a good team, but we knew we should
have beat them.”
The race did not start out going the Badgers
way. The Spartans got out to an early lead
behind a pair of front-running Timberlake
Tigers. “We heard coach telling us we were
already behind,” Senior Jack Wade said of the
first mile. Making matters worse, Nolan Stidham,
a usual front runner, had developed a deep cough
over the previous days. “ By the second loop we
knew we’d have to really start moving up. Every
point counts,” said Wade.
(Story continues below this photo).
Working in the Spartan’s favor, stellar freshmen
Caleb Gleason and Cameron Parkes took third and
fourth place. “That’s never a good feeling
seeing their front two come in ahead of your
first runner,” Coach Warner said. “But then the
pack saved us.” As has been their trend for most
of the second half of the season, the Badger
frontrunners came in all together. Jack Wade led
the way with an 18:44, freshman Jamin Bontrager
came in two seconds later, and Nolan Stidham two
seconds after him. With sixth through eighth
place firmly in the hands of the Badgers, things
began to look up. The next two Badgers would be
Dawson Thomas and Alva Swanson, running 19:08
and 19:10 respectively.
Eric Ellis would be the Badgers sixth runner
across at 19:13. Nick Magdaleno would come in at
20:23. Sam Gorton would post a season best time
on the difficult course with 20:46. Louis
Balcaen had to recover from a severe fall near
the finish, but managed to recover and finish
just behind Gorton at 20:47. Bradley Corson ran
a hard 21:01 and Sam Smith battled with teammate
TJ Smith to finish 21:13 and 21:16 respectively.
Ryne Rae would finish in 21:19 and finally Alex
Urbaniak at 25:55.
A sprinkling of Timberlake and Priest River
runners throughout made it difficult to
determine exactly how the points played out
early on. “We knew Timberlake would probably
win. So it came down to two teams battling hard
for second,” said Coach Warner. “It was going to
be close.” In the end, the Badgers secured their
eighth consecutive trip to state, scoring 52
points against Priest River’s 56 points.
(Story continues below this photo).
“Jack did a great job, stepping up when Nolan
wasn’t feeling well,” assistant Catherine
DelSalle commented. “But having them all stay
together was critical. Without that teamwork we
could have been on the outside looking in.”
“It’s a really good feeling,” Stidham would say
of their accomplishment. “We had to work really
hard against a good team.” The boys’ top 10 all
qualified as individuals, giving Zak Bishop from
Kellogg as well as Gleason and Parkes a chance
to compete at the state race.
In addition to six total medalists, two second
place trophies, and two berths to state, Bonners
Ferry Coach Tyler Warner was awarded the
Intermountain League Cross Country Coach of the
Year for the second consecutive year. The award
is determined by a vote of all of the
Iintermountain League coaches and athletic
directors.
The Badgers varsity teams will return to
Farragut this Saturday, October 31 for the 3A
Championship races, which start at Scott Field
at 1:30 p.m. for the girls and 2:30 p.m. for the
boys.
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