Nelson, Steward set new standards

The Daily Inter Lake

Maybe the Glacier View Cross Country Course isn't so tough after all.

After all, course records for both the varsity girls and boys fell on a soggy Saturday during the annual Flathead Invitational.

Flathead senior Zoe Nelson knocked 13 seconds off her own mark (17:53, set Aug. 27) to win in 17:40 and Plains senior Dane Steward ran 16:02, blasting former Flathead runner Matt Parker's 2003 record by 17 seconds.

But about that first statement - guess again.

"I've never ran here before," a gasping Steward said after his victory.

"I came in here … everybody said it was going to be a really tough course - and it was," Steward said. "The first hill got to me," he said.

"I figured I'd push the second and third hill. It was tough," he emphasized. "The hills, that's what made it hard … and the competition."

Flathead wound up winning three of the four races - the varsity girls, JV girls and JV boys. The varsity boys placed second behind Spokane's NorthCentral.

The Flathead girls had three runners in the top five (Nelson first, Carly Brown second and Chelsea Burfeind fifth) and five among the top 10.

The computer program Flathead uses does not count place finishes of runners without full teams. Big Sky, Bigfork, and Eureka did not field complete teams.

"Our top four looked tough," Flathead coach Paul Jorgensen said. "And five in the top 10, our fifth girl is improving, so that's encouraging.

"Work does pay off," he said.

Nelson glided in to the finish 67 seconds ahead of teammate Carly Brown.

Nelson "stepped it up" this past summer, Jorgensen said.

"She did more. This summer, she upped her workload. We don't encourage high mileage when they're young, but she was ready for it as a senior," the coach said.

For her part, Brown carved nearly 30 seconds off her best time of last year to finish in 18:47.

"It felt really good," Brown said. "I put in a lot of time during the summer. Hard work is bound to pay off."

"I had a plan beforehand and the plan worked.

"That was to lose them on the second hill. I'm strong on hill and not as strong with my kick," she said.

"Going up the second hill, I decided to surge and continue my surge on the downhill."

"Carly ran an awesome race," Nelson said.

"The whole team did really well. Our whole team is looking really good this year. We're having a lot of fun and we're all encouraging each other.

"It really helps to have a lot of girls who want to do well and are really focused for it."

"Generally speaking, for our second meet, we ran well," Jorgensen said.

"The boys are young, they're going to improve.

"I like to compare times to last year. I think every single kid improved 30 seconds or more," he said of the boys.

Elliot Welder in particular did well.

Last year, Welder placed 27th in this race with a time of 18:12. Saturday he ran 16:44 for sixth.

"That's a huge improvement," the coach said.

"We have a good bunch, I think."

He complimented the efforts of Shannon Ross (36 seconds faster this year), Riata Booky (40 seconds) and Elizabeth Myers (over one minute).

"I can't complain too much," he smiled.

Whitefish also had similar results.

"All of our kids improved on a tough course," said WHS assistant coach Sara Brist.

"Especially Kayla Knight, by about three minutes."

Brist said Ian Mallams improved his time from a year ago by two minutes.

Saturday's Results

Girls

Course record - 17:53, Zoe Nelson, Flathead, Aug. 27, 2004.

Team results - Flathead 23, CMR 62, Loyola 99, Cut Bank 156, Hellgate 157, Sentinel 176, Ronan 190, Polson 198, Great Falls High 203, Whitefish 245, Libby 282, Browning 300, Columbia Falls 327.

Top 25

Place Runner School Time

1. Zoe Nelson Flathead 17:40

2. Carly Brown Flathead 18:47

3. Whitney Wilson Hellgate 19:03

4. Kim Trizt Big Sky 19:13

5. Chelsea Burfeind Flathead 19:24

6. Marilee Woyth CMR 19:48

7. Shannon Ross Flathead 19:49

8. Caitlin Stone Sentinel 19:58

9. Brooke Andrus Bigfork 20:03

10. Emmy Bentley Eureka 20:15

11. Terinee McCready Ronan 20:33

12. Kasha Kidrick CMR 20:36

13. Elizabeth Myers Flathead 20:44

14. Alison Hixon Loyola 20:46

15. Sam Campbell Polson 20:49

16. Charlie Murphy CMR 20:55

17. Sarah Stergios Loyola 21:03

18. Sydney Best CMR 21:08

19. Delyssia Tromblee Cut Bank 21:10

20. Riata Booky Flathead 21:11

21. Barbara Steward Plains 21:17

22. Sarah Giuliani Loyola 21:23

23. Brianna Malmquist Ronan 21:25

24. Rebecca Frank CMR 21:25

25. Chelsey Fink Loyola 21:27

Also

Flathead (top five) - Zoe Nelson, Carly Brown, Chelsea Burfeind, Shannon Ross, Elizabeth Myers.

Whitefish - 28. Kayla Knight, 21:39; 43. Anne Danczyk, 22:22; 65. Cassie Schell, 23:20; 70. Claire Miller, 23:30; 81. Janna Rozar, 23:59.

Columbia Falls - 32. Deriree Marjerrison, 21:53; 80. Jessica Dedman, 23:57; 89. Brittany Hader, 24:25; 97. Lea Bukowski, 24:51; 101. Kym Island, 25:09.

Libby - 52. Sarah Becker, 22:53; 63. Laura Finley, 23:18; 64. Tina McLinden, 23:19; 69. Hollis May, 23:29; 87. Carly Maloney, 24:18.

Polson - Sam Campbell, 27. Alex Noble, 21:37; 60. Tanna Bull, 23:09; 62. Kali Cook, 23:14; 72. Leslie Patterson, 23:37.

Bigfork - Brooke Andrus, 57. Jamie Morgenstern, 23:03; 68. Ashley Mcallister, 23:29.

Eureka - Emmy Bentley, 106. Christina Johnson, 27:34; 107. Heather Stewart, 27:53.

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Boys

Course record: Matt Parker, Flathead, 16:19, Sept. 6, 2003.

Team results: North Central 35, Flathead 66, Big Sky 82, Browning 162, Ronan 172, Loyola 180, Sentinel 185, Polson 193, Columbia Falls 251, Cut Bank 297, Plains 302, Thompson Falls 322, Great Falls 332, CMR 336, Whitefish 396, Great Falls Central 446, Centerville/Belt 522.

Top 25

Place Runner School Time

1. Dane Steward Plains 16:02

2. Luke Graesser NorthCentral 16:20

3. Zanen Pitts Ronan 16:20

4. Ben Johnson Big Sky 16:23

5. Andrew Scott NorthCentral 16:30

6. Elliot Welder Flathead 16:44

7. David Alderson NorthCentral 16:52

8. Forrest Lumpry Big Sky 16:59

9. Caleb Jahay NorthCentral 17:02

10. John Fairweather Flathead 17:03

11. Hunter Nelson Big Sky 17:05

12. James Clark NorthCentral 17:07

13. Sean Clark Flathead 17:10

14. Daniel Bridge Shelby 17:12

15. Jake Sanders NorthCentral 17:13

16. Cord Houston CMR 17:16

17. Seth Grossman Flathead 17:16

18. Kyle Malerk Sentinel 17:17

19. Alex Tabish Loyola 17:21

20. Eric Larson Big Sky 17:21

21. Michael Fisher Ronan 17:24

22. Justin Barth Flathead 17:25

23. David Myers Bigfork 17:30

24. Andrew Gilham CutBank 17:32

25. Marlin Blackwolf Browning 17:33

Also

Flathead (top five) - Elliot Welder, John Fairweather, Sean Clark, Seth Grossman, Justin Barth.

Whitefish - 35. Ian Mallams, 17:45; 94. Erik Anderson, 19:43; 101. Jacob Fern, 20:17; 104. Grant Metzmaker, 20:26; Izaak Opatz, 20:46.

Columbia Falls - 44. Aric Tarr, 18:02; 46. Dalvin Averill, 18:09; 47. Devin Schmidt, 18:09; 52. Steffen Anderson, 18:16; 82. Andy Reindl, 19:10.

Libby - 56. Charley May, 18:17; 86. Andrew Elliott, 19:17; 88. Brian Kehn, 19:21.

Polson - 29. Grant Casey, 17:38; 37. Olin McCrumb, 17:47; 38. Logan Torgison, 17:48; 50. David Ring, 18:12; 53. Chris Ogle, 18:16.

Bigfork - David Myers.

Eureka - 31. Theron Truman, 17:43, 119. Jay Roberts, 21:43.