Flathead runners on the road to Yakima

The Daily Inter Lake

Flathead's ranked cross country teams will face an even bigger challenge today at the Sunfair Invitational in Yakima, Wash.

The Braves, ranked No. 2 in the Northwest, and the Bravettes, ranked No. 7, will be going up against other ranked teams from Thousand Oaks, Calif.; Ferris High School, Spokane, Wash.; and Hermiston, Ore.

Mead High School of Spokane is currently No. 1 in the Northwest for the boys, but will not be in attendance.

All total, 3,000 runners will be on hand.

Last week the FHS boys won the Mountain West Classic in Missoula while the Bravettes finished third. Forty-five teams scored in that meet, which had 1,600 athletes competing.

Flathead has 37 runners in Yakima.

Action begins at 9 a.m. with junior high school races. Varsity competition begins at noon.

The Flathead boys have won Sunfair "three or four times," said FHS coach Paul Jorgensen. The FHS girls won it a year ago.

"We just got bumped up to No. 2 (in the rankings)," said Jorgensen of the boys.

"That's good. The top two go to the national meet."

That will take place in December at the Nike Campus in Oregon.

"It would be nice to win it (boys title), but who knows," said Jorgensen of the Sunfair.

"It would be nice to be in the top three. I think we can if we have a good day."

Elysia Andrews and Elliot Welder will be Flathead's No. 1 runners for this event, which features seven varsity races. The No. 1 runners from all teams compete against each other in one race. The same goes for the No. 2s, No. 3s and so on.

A perfect score would be seven. The best FHS has done is "14 or 15," said Jorgensen.

"We're getting our girls back healthy, so it will be interesting to see how they do," said Jorgensen.

Following this outing, Flathead has two meets left before state Oct. 22 in Missoula.

FHS varsity lineup for Yakima

Girls

Elysia Andrews, Tera Klein, Shannon Ross, Heidi Windauer, Riata Booky, Andrea Yager, Liz Myers

Boys

Elliot Welder, Seth Grossman, John Fairweather, Sean Clark, Justin Barth, Carl Nystuen, Seth Svennungsen