Badgers arrive late, finish strong

September 29, 2016

Photos by Rachel Ellis Jordan Young, Ada Bonnell, Abigail Gorton, Austin Donn and Sam Gorton show off their medal after a good run in Moscow. Gorton ran a season best to win her race.

Bonners Ferry cross country made its way to the Elks Golf Course on the east edge of Moscow for the Bob Weisel Invite Saturday. Moscow High School hosted several distances, include a 1.5-mile middle school course, a 5k high school course, and a 2k high school course. Moscow also made the unique move of dividing races into freshmen/sophomore and junior/senior races and combining boys and girls into the same competition. On a beautiful Wednesday afternoon, the Badgers raced the 5k courses to great success despite early setbacks. Badger senior Eric Ellis had a good run, finishing the course at 19:58. “The main issue was time,” said Coach Tyler Warner. “We had some delays, including some construction north of Moscow. Races were supposed to start at 4 p.m., so when we rolled into Moscow at 3:30, we told the freshmen and sophomores they better start getting loose on the bus and probably wouldn’t get to tour the course until they were racing it.” Typically, athletes get to walk the course prior to competing so that they know what to expect and avoid getting lost. “They did really well,” assistant coach Catherine DelSalle said. “It was a great lesson in flexibility and trusting their training.” The course featured a variety of hills and turns which the coaches agreed were in favor of the training Bonners Ferry had been doing. Austin Donn and Sam Gorton led the way for the boys, finishing in 19:29 and 19:32 respectively. Nathan Olsen finished in 25:36. Despite never having seen the course before, Abigail Gorton ran an impressive 21:35 for a first place victory and a season best time. Lauren Stidham also ran the freshmen/sophomore race and crossed the line at 27:05. In the junior/senior race, Jordan Young made her season debut after recovering from a knee injury, taking third place and a 21:48 finish. Ada Bonnell also attacked the hilly course to take fourth place and a season best time of 24:00. Liz Cowley and Rayan Naylor, also representing the Lady Badgers, finished in 27:02 and 28:26 respectively. The junior/senior boys faced difficult competition, but still posted strong times. Dawson Thomas led the way for Bonners Ferry with a 19:14 finish while senior Eric Ellis crossed at 19:58. Nick Magdaleno, a junior, finished in 22:05 while senior Alex Urbaniak posted his best time this season, 23:55. Will Colson rounded out Bonners Ferry runners with a 26:42.