Flathead, Glacier runners excel at 7 on 7

HELENA — Glacier’s Lauren Bissen and Owen Thiel were plenty fast at the Capital City 7 on 7 meet Thursday; just a handful of runners were faster.

Bissen, a junior, was third in the No. 1 varsity girls race, finishing in 18 minutes, 35.02 seconds. A pair of talented freshmen went 1-2: Addison Kegel of Billings Central won in 17:17.96 and Bozeman’s Phoebe Maixner followed at 18:08.28. 

Everett Holland of Flathead was fourth in that race at 19:03.40; her time was fourth among all girls at the meet, with Glacier’s Ada Thiel winning the No. 2 varsity race in 18:34.27. 

The unscored meet departs from the usual cross country setup in that each school is made to pitch its No. 1 runner against the top runners from the other programs. The number 2s run their race, 3s, and so on, seven in all for the boys and girls. 

Among the top local finishers was Flathead’s Emery Eash, fifth in the girls No. 3 race. 

Glacier had several high finishers: Caitryn Vander Vloedt, fourth in girls No. 4; Anika Ackerly, sixth in girls No. 5; Hailey Fiala was fourth in the No. 6 race; and Jamie Murphy was third at No. 7. 

On the boys side, Glacier’s Owen Thiel was fourth in the boys No. 1 race (and overall), clocking 15:42.74. He finished behind Miles Halvorson of Bozeman (15:18.55), Milo Kauffman of Helena and defending State A champion Finn Schretenhater of Livingston. 

Glacier also saw Jude Sparkman place seventh in the No. 2 race, Nathan Turner take fifth in the No. 4 race and Duncan Young finish second in race No. 7. 

Carson Thorne of Flathead was sixth in the No. 1 race and eighth overall at 16:15.43. Teammate Chris Holland was fifth in the No. 3 race at 16:45.48; Ryker Zuffalato was third in the fourth race. 

Full results can be found at athletic.net.