WAC girls 3rd at NW region meet

The Whitefish Athletic Club cross country team finished third in the Varsity Division at the NXN Northwest Championships on Saturday in Boise, Idaho, at Eagle State Park.

 Whitefish Athletic Club, led by all-region runners Bailey Eaton and Jessica Sagen, totaled 97 points.

Vallivue View High School from Caldwell, Idaho, placed first with a 42-point total. Crusader Harriers (Jesuit High School) of Portland, Ore., was second with 53.

Eaton finished 13th with a time of 20 minutes, 30 seconds for the 5K (3.1 mile) run. Sagen was 15th in 20:40.

Cheryn Trapp of Valley View was the individual winner, 19:17.

“We had a goal going in of placing in the top three,” WAC coach Bill Brist said.

“It’s a regional meet with a lot of great teams. For us to be able to compete well against them was a real big deal.”

Also placing for WAC: 33. Loni Hanson, 21:16; 66. Carly Schwickert, 22:28; 67. Hannah Weaver, 22:29; and 102. Nicole Birk, 24:52.

Runners finishing in the top 21 spots were named all-region. There were 15 teams competing and 107 runners.

WAC was one runner short of fielding a full team in the boys Varsity Division, which had 23 teams and 222 runners.

 Summit XC of Oregon claimed team honors with 64 points and had the top individual runner, Pat Madden, who won with a time of 16:31 for 5K.

For WAC, it was: 124. Nathan Knox, 18:36; 173. Will Holdhusen, 19:29; 176. Baxter Graham, 19:33; and 218. Dietrich Perchy, 21:59

This is the third year WAC has competed at this event.