Zoe breaks record, but finishes 2nd at Sun Fair

The Daily Inter Lake

YAKIMA, Wash. - Zoe Nelson lost for the first time in a regular season meet, but the Flathead girls still won the Sun Fair Invitational. The boys finished ninth.

The meet featured about 80 teams and had over 3,000 boys and girls. Seven different varsity races were held, and Flathead entered one runner in each.

Nelson led her race for the first two-and-a-half miles before Brie Felnagle caught and passed her on a downhill stretch.

"She was taller, had longer legs and was able to outsprint her," FHS coach Paul Jorgensen said.

Felnagle, from Bellarmine High School outside Seattle, handed Nelson just her fourth defeat overall. Nelson lost in regionals as a freshman and in the nationals twice.

"Not well," Jorgensen replied when asked how Nelson was handling defeat. "She doesn't like to lose. Sometimes good things come out of a loss."

Both runners broke the course record of 17:24. Felnagle won in 17:10 and Nelson was 11 seconds behind that.

"The race between those two was by far the most exciting race of the day," Jorgensen said.

Flathead's Carly Brown won her race, posting the fourth-fastest time of the day overall, 18:34. Shannon Ross, Chelsea Burfeind and Riata Booky added second place finishes as the Bravettes finished with 22 points, five better than Bellarmine.

"It was close between us and Bellarmine the whole way," Jorgensen said. "We got a little bit ahead there the last couple of races and were able to hold on."

Bellarmine is the eighth-ranked team in the nation.

On the boys side, Seth Grossman placed sixth in his race and the other six Brave runners posted top 20 performances as Flathead finished ninth in an 80-team field.

"I thought all our kids ran well," Jorgensen said. "Seth Grossman had an exceptional race. Overall, all our kids ran well, had a good meet."

Flathead won the combined team trophy as well.

Results

Boys

13, Elliott Welder, 16:07; 15, John Fairweather, 16:34; 15, Sean Clark, 16:46; 6, Seth Grossman, 16:49; 17, Justin Barth, 17:25; 12, Aaron Wilson, 17:29; 12, Orion Bras.

Girls

2, Zoe Nelson, 17:21; 1, Carly Brown, 18:34; 2, Shannon Ross, 19:23; 2, Chelsea Burfeind, 19:46; 5, Liz Myers, 20:31; 2, Riata Booky, 20:28; 8, Gera Klein, 20:43.