Ronan Invitational Silver Fox Golf Course Pablo, Montana Thursday, September 13, 2007 Girls Varsity Team Results: (9 teams in attendance) 1. Whitefish 34 2. Ronan 56 3. Thompson Falls 83 4. Polson 139 5. Eureka 153 . Darby no score . Columbia Falls no score . Plains no score . Bigfork no score Individual results: 4. Lauren Kuennen, 12 Whitefish 19:37 5. Loni Hanson, 10 Whitefish 19:47 7. Stella Holt, 9 Whitefish 20:14 8. Clare Miller, 12 Whitefish 20:18 10. Bailey Eaton, 9 Whitefish 20:42 11. Kelly Beiser, 11 Whitefish 20:50 Girls Junior Varsity Team Results: (18 teams in attendance) 1. Columbia Falls 29 2. Whitefish 55 3. Libby 75 . Ronan no score . Darby no score . Bigfork no score . Thompson Falls no score . Arlee no score Individual results: 4. Jessica Sagen, 9 Whitefish 22:20 11. Anne Miller, 10 Whitefish 23:01 12. Megan Shaver, 11 Whitefish 23:06 13. Hannah Weaver, 10 Whitefish 23:28 15. Caitlin Caltabiano, 11 Whitefish 23:38 21. Elizabeth Stevenson, 9 Whitefish 25:20 81. Alexa Holliday, 10 Whitefish 25:42 Boys Varsity Team Results (10 teams in attendance) 1. Thompson Falls 46 2. Whitefish 56 3. Ronan 109 4. Polson 138 5. Eureka 220 . Bigfork no score . Plains no score . Columbia Falls no score . Arlee no score . Darby no score Boys Individual Results: 3. Drew Coco, 11 Whitefish 15:55 9. Erik Anderson, 12 Whitefish 17:07 12. Nick Donovan, 12 Whitefish 17:37 14. Pat McGunagle, 11 Whitefish 17:44 18. Michael Harrison, 12 Whitefish 18:08 21. Michael Samdahl, 12 Whitefish 18:12 31. Byron Bard, 12 Whitefish 18:50 Boys Junior Varsity Team Results: (9 teams in attendance) 1. Libby 47 2. Columbia Falls 55 3. Thompson Falls 74 4. Polson 110 5. Whitefish 123 6. Ronan 148 . Bigfork no score . Darby no score . Arlee no score Boys JV Individual Results: 8. Dylan Rice, 12 Whitefish 19:39 10. Baxter Graham, 9 Whitefish 19:50 32. Tucker Chambers, 9 Whitefish 22:58 34. Pierre Hilligot, 12 Whitefish 23:05 39. Ryan Rice, 11 Whitefish 25:41 43. Dietrich Perchy, 9 Whitefish 26:15 44. Christopher Reyna, 9 Whitefish 26:17 Comments on the meet: The Silver Fox Course in Pablo will be the site of the Northwestern A Conference Championship meet in Mid October. The Ronan Invitational held on the same course on Thursday was a nice preview for the Whitefish Cross Country teams. “Anytime that you can get a look at the course early, it is a benefit for the future. In this case we were able to race well on the course and gain a lot of confidence for later this fall.” The Whitefish Lady Bulldog team continued to run all over the competition with a victory in the girls varsity race with a low score of 34. Ronan was second with 56 points, with Thompson Falls rounding out the top three teams. “These young ladies keep the heat on with every race. They keep improving as they start to round into better condition. Improvement is the key at this point in the season. We are at the half-way point, and with all the other teams improving, we need to do the same or we’ll give up our advantage.” Lauren Kuenne and Loni Hanson, again, led the team with their fourth and fifth place finishes. “These two front runners keep us in every meet. They stay close to the lead runners, which gives us an edge in the scoring. It will be interesting to see how they run against a big crowd in next weeks Mountain West Classic in Missoula. They’ll have the chance to go up against the best runners from Montana, Idaho and Washington in the huge meet held on the University of Montana Golf Course on Saturday.” Stella Holt (7th), Clare Miller, (8th), Bailey Eaton (10th ) and Kelly Beiser (11th) all had fantastic races as well as they packed in the top 11 spots. “Stella continues to gain confidence, and is gradually moving her way up to the front two. Clare is right there as well. These two will only get faster as the season continues, so that bodes well for our front group. Bailey had a great race to finish as our fifth scorer, and Kelly was right with her, so we are pretty solid with our top six.” At this point of the season, rounding out the final member of the top seven has still to be sorted out. “It doesn’t seem that any runner is really comfortable with their position. They all know that their teammates are talented and can have that great race at any time. We’re still waiting to see who will come out of the crowd to join these six. Beth Donovan, our team leader for the past two seasons has been fighting heath issues, and could really give us a boost if we can fit her back into the lineup.” “Plus, we have several younger runners that seem really eager to jump into that group as well. In Ronan, newcomer Jessica Sagen had a fantastic race to finish fourth in the Junior Varsity race with a time of 22:20. That was a great run for her, and certainly shows me that she has the ability to be one of our top seven. Carly Schwickert has also shown that she could be there as well. Anne Miller, Hannah Weaver and Caitlin Caltabianno are all making huge strides as well. The depth of our girls team is as good as it’s ever been. That’s a strength that we really are fortunate to have.” The Whitefish boys team had a very good day as well finishing second to Thompson Falls in the team standings, with a low score of 56 points. “I thought that the boys did a very good job today. They have improved a lot since our first couple of meets. Today was definitely their best race of the season. It was nice to see them compete so well.” Drew Coco led the team with his third place finish in a time of 15:55. “Drew ran a very competitive race. The two runners in front of him have proven to be a couple of the better runners in the state. He’s gradually moving his way closer to them. I’m certain that it’s only a matter of time and experience that will lead him to be able to get by these front runners. His time was a personal best by nearly 25 seconds, as he became only the third Bulldog to run under 16 minutes for 3 miles. He’s starting to close in on our school record of 15:43. I see him getting close by the end of the season.” Erik Anderson also finished in the top ten with his ninth place finish. Nick Donovan (12th - 17:37), Patrick McGunagle (14th - 17:44), and Michael Harrison (18th - 18:08) rounded out the team scores for the bulldog team. “This was a solid run for the boys team. Thompson Falls is a very good team. They’ve obviously have done a lot of off season training, and they deserved the win. I think that we may be able to catch them later in the season as we continue to improve our workouts. We certainly have the talent and the opportunity as we see them again in our next two meets.”