Flathead second at Mountain West run

The Daily Inter Lake

MISSOULA - Defending champion Flathead finished second to Bozeman in the boys field at the Mountain West Classic cross country meet Saturday at the University of Montana Golf Course.

Bozeman was the lone team to break the 100-point barrier, finishing with a team score of 87. Flathead was next, 108, with North Central of Spokane third, 173.

"Bozeman is good," said FHS coach Paul Jorgensen.

"We beat Bozeman over in Great Falls by a few points, but they were gunning for us. They had some strategies (ready for us) that worked."

In the girls competition, Billings Senior led the way, 97. Billings West came in second, 161, and Bozeman third, 181.

Flathead finished eighth, 278.

The FHS boys had four runners place in the top 30. Seth Grossman was third, 15:19.55; Cary Nystuen ninth, 15:39; Seth Svennungsen 22nd, 15:56:16; and Justin Barth 26th, 16:00.04. Grossman was fourth at this event a year ago.

"Seth had an outstanding race," said Jorgensen.

"So did Carl Nystuen. We need to work on closing our 3-4-5 runners to our top two. I can't (really) complain too much (because) comparing our times to last year at this race, our times were faster."

Logan Torgison of Polson finished eighth, 15:37.88 while Ian Mallams of Whitefish was 20th, 15:53.35.

Patrick Casey of Laurel was the individual winner, timed in 15:06.80.

Whitefish finished 16th while Polson was 30th.

The Flathead girls had two individuals place in the top 30: Tera Klein was eighth, 18:36.21; and Elysia Andrews was 18th, 18:48.91.

"For those two getting sub-19s, that's outstanding," said Jorgensen.

"That was a very good race for her (Klein). She improved by almost a minute over last year's time. She's running very well.

"Elysia is coming along, getting better every race."

Like the boys, Jorgensen said the girls must pack better.

"We need to get 3-4-5 closer," he said.

"We have a very young team, so I'm expecting it will happen."

Bridgette Hoenke of Billings Senior posted the fastest time for the girls, 17:52.68.

The event drew more than 1,500 high school runners.

The Flathead boys came into the meet ranked No. 4 in the Pacific Northwest by Nike.

Flathead travels to Yakima, Wash., Saturday for the Sunfair Invitational.