No. 1 girls race brings best to Capital City 7 on 7

HELENA — The girls No. 1 race, which saw Hardin’s Karis Brightwings-Pease, Glacier’s Lauren Bissen and Flathead’s Josie Wilson finish within 6 seconds of each other, highlighted the Capital City 7-on-7 cross country meet Thursday.

Brightwings-Pease, the two-time State A champion, won the heat in 18 minutes, 30.9 seconds, and avenged one of her two losses this season. Bissen, who like Brightwings-Pease is a sophomore, won the Mountain West Classic on Sept. 28, where the Hardin standout finished seventh.  

Bissen clocked 18:35.47 Friday at Bill Roberts Golf Course while Wilson, a senior for the Bravettes, ran 18:36.80. Wilson’s time was a season best and ranks third in Class AA. 

Bissen still owns the fastest time this season, which is the 18:22.7 she ran at the Mountain West. 

The unscored meet staggers the races by each school’s runners, 1 through 7, and 59 schools participated, including all 16 AA schools aand 18 from A. Not everyone at the top of Montana’s rankings ran Friday: Glacier junior Owen Thiel is one example.  

In his absence, Grey Piseno of Billings Central ran Montana's fastest time this season: 15:31.79. Thiel, who ran 15:31.8 on Sept. 6 at the Flathead Invitational, is now No. 2 in the State and still No. 1 in AA. 

Flathead’s girls had a strong team showing: freshmen Everett Holland (19:26.53) and Emery Eash (20:17.5) both set personal records; teammates Lindy Porter (20:41.74), Marley Bain (21:49.98), Akiyah Hardman (22:49.01) and Mikaela Mayne (23:12.98) all ran their season bests. 

Glacier saw Anna Tretter (20:27.60) and Alyssa Vollertsen (20:28.75) run season bests while freshman Hailey Fiala (21:00.41) hit her PR. 

Columbia Falls, which lines up as the closest pursuer to Hardin in the Class A girls ranks, saw Cora Hannan (20:37.64) and Claire Bates (22:00.29) PR Thursday, while Ashley Andrews (20:43.42) ran her season-best. 

On the boys’ side, freshman Nathan Turner finished second in the No. 7 race for Glacier, with a PR of 17:32.49; teammate Brogan Lancaster was eighth in the No. 6 race. 

Flathead’s sharpest performance was from sophomore Chris Holland, who ran a  PR of 17:34.3 and was third in the No. 7 race. Teammate Carson Thorne, a freshman, was fourth in the No. 6 race. 

Columbia Falls’ Oliver Kress (17:32.92) ran his season best; teammate Griffin LaRocque (17:44.0) got a PR 

Whitefish’s Simon Douglas broke 17 minutes for the fourth time this season and took fifth in the No. 2 race at 16:37.97. 

Full results can be found at athletic.net.