'Cav' Cavendar sets personal best
September 11, 2012
Badger sophomore Tucker "Cav" Cavender finished at the Kellogg Invitational Thursday shaving five minutes off last year's time and setting a new personal best.
Karen Perkins photo
The Bonners Ferry Badger cross country team experienced flat and fast courses at both invitationals last week. The Kellogg Invitational was held at the Pinehurst golf course on Thursday and included teams from Moscow, Potlatch, Priest River, Kellogg, Kootenai, and Troy, Idaho. The Badger girls took third, and the boys were second.

Coach Paul Bonnell noted that the team race strategy at Kellogg was to have many of the experienced runners pace the newcomers to faster times.

"It's an ideal course for coaching, in terms of being able to cover ground to see what the athletes are doing," he said. "Thursday's race helped us prepare for Silverwood, and it helped several runners maximize their performances."

Several Badgers ran career and season personal bests, notably sophomore Tucker "Cav" Cavender improved on last year's performance by almost five minutes.

The novice girls' team had a chance to develop some cohesion and practice competitive strategies, which paid off on Saturday at the Silverwood Coaster Cross in a much larger field of competitors that included runners from about 30 schools.

At Silverwood, junior Luke Reoch (14th) led the varsity Badger boys to a 12th-place team finish out of 25 full teams from around the region; Whitefish, Centennial, Borah, Pullman, Frenchtown, etc.

The junior varsity crew, led by senior Josh Dufrene, finished in 17th place. The Badgers' next meet is on Saturday, the Coeur d'Alene Invite at Hayden Canyon.