The first cross country meet of the season was held in Corvallis on Friday. Because of COVID-19, the meets will be smaller with only teams from the same classification competing. Hamilton finished first in the boys’ team scoring while Corvallis won the girls’ team scoring.
Corvallis coach Joanne Cleveland said she was very happy for her team to even be able to compete. Corvallis has about 30 runners out this year. The numbers are down a little because there wasn’t a spring season and Cleveland and her staff weren’t able to talk to incoming freshmen about signing up for cross country.
Corvallis has a couple of girls that should be able to compete at the top and in fact, finished second and third in this meet. Olivia Buoy finished second with a time of 21:11 for the course. Teammate Katie Gleason was third with a time of 21:48. Laurie Davidson finished fourth with a time of 22:36. Anna Jessop and Kaitlyn Blatter finished eighth and ninth for the Blue Devils.
Hamilton’s Brynnli Poulsen won the race with a time of 20:09. As the returning state champion, she is considered one of the top runners in all classes in the state according her coach, Mark Albert. He said he has seven girls out and 19 boys racing.
“It’s a good group,” he said. “Hardin and Columbia Falls are good but I think we have a shot at a title.”
Hamilton’s boys are led by junior Colter Kirkland. He finished second in the state last year. He ran a time of 18:08 and finished fourth in the race on Friday. His teammate, CJ Purcell won the race with a time of 17:11. Lane Cole was third with 17:29. Harrison Silverio finished eighth and Zachary Kunkel was ninth.
Corvallis’ Yannis Jessop was the highest placer for the Blue Devils. He finished in sixth place with a tie of 18:35. Brandon Domsalla was 10th. Cleveland said that one of their best runners, Brinson Wyche, was out with a broken wrist but they hoped he would be able to run soon.
Albert said his team had been working hard all summer, running and conditioning. “The hardest thing to get done was any team building activities.
“With the social distancing, it’s been more difficult to do any games and activities,” he said. “The team has to wear masks and sit one to a seat on the bus.”