by Scott Sacry
The 60th Montana State Cross Country Championship took place at Rebecca Farms in Kalispell on Saturday, Oct. 21st. All classes participated from Class C to Class AA, including Corvallis, Hamilton, and Stevensville in Class A, and Darby and Florence in Class B.
Class A results
Corvallis senior Laurie Davidson capped off her high school career, running a great race and finishing 2nd place with a time of 19:00.95 (Davidson finished 5th last year). Hamilton freshman Aleigha Child took 3rd place with a time of 19:08.77. Also in the top 25, Corvallis’s Violet Jessop finished in 7th place (19:47.05), Corvallis’s Ella Varner finished 11th (19:52.30), and Hamilton’s Sierra Berry took 25th.
The Corvallis girls earned the Class A State Runner Up trophy. The top five Corvallis runners were Laurie Davidson, Violet Jessop, Ella Varner, Jillian Huls, and Sierra Wissenbach. The Hamilton girls took 3rd place; their top five runners were Aleigha Child, Sierra Berry, Kinga Kari, Ryanne Child, and Reagan Burrows. The following Stevensville girls qualified and ran in State: Cecillia Franchi, Keenya Gibson, and Jaidyn Cranfill.
In the boys Class A race, Hamilton’s Taylor Doleac finished 4th with a time of 16:07.26, Corvallis’s Jack Davidson finished 5th (16:10.50), Hamilton’s Bryson Poulsen took 12th (16:37.42), and Corvallis’s Marrek Jessop finished in 21st (17:04.75).
In the Class A team standing, the Corvallis team of Jack Davidson, Marrek Jessop, Jeremy Davidson, Carter Koerner, Ledge Conner finished in 7th place. The Hamilton team of Taylor Doleac, Bryson Poulsen, Evan Bennett, Thomas Rockwell, and Stephan Matveev finished 9th. The Stevensville team of Erik Potter, Leon Vallie, Delaware Braverman, Keith Nyholm, and Flint Bauer finished 21st.
Class B results
Florence junior Kyler Harris took 5th in the Class B boys race with a time of 16:11.69. Darby freshman Ben Martin finished in 10th (17:06.48), and Florence’s CJ Pijanowski finished in 19th place.
In the Class B boys team standing, the Florence team of Kyler Harris, CJ Pijanowski, Seba Schroeder, Max Rosenthal, Caden Miller took 5th place. For Darby, besides Martin, the following boys competed at state: Taylor Graham, Kasch Neidhardt, and Leif Nelson.
Individually for the girls, Darby’s Lily Adair finished in 17th place with a time of 20:00.34. Darby’s other state qualifying runner was Alyanna Reasor. For Florence, both Bailey Kroeker and Kenzy Pickering qualified and ran at state.