M-ette X-Country: Stiles placed third at Scottie Invitational; Malta third as team

The overall winner of the girl's 3 mile race of 58 runners that took place on the flat Downstream Campground Nature Trail at Fort Peck last Saturday was Josie Braaten who ran the course in record time with 18:43.

Amanda Wolff of Glasgow ran the fast course to a 2nd place finish with a time of 19:32.

Right on her heals in 3rd place was Malta's Sophia Stiles who posted a personal best for this season with a time of 19:46. Kensey Keil of Plentywood and Emily Kuehn of Glendive placed 4th and 5th respectively rounding out the top 5 finishers for the Varsity girl's race.

The Malta M-ette Cross Country team placed as follows:

Sophia Stiles 3rd 19:46

Marley Manoukian 24th 22:20

Joanie Sjostrom 26th 22:40

Hailey Nicholson 31st 23:27

Eva Harms 32nd 23:40

Jenise Amestoy 34th 24:52

Monicha Williamson 36th 26:16

Teams were represented from schools from Plentywood, Glendive, Sidney, Richie/Lambert, Wolf Point, Brockton, Frazer, Harlem, Circle, Culbertson/Bainville, Poplar, Dodson/Whitewater, Watford City, North Dakota, Sidney, Malta and Glasgow. Team scores were kept for schools fielding 5 runners or more and they were:

Glasgow 43 points

Glendive 49

Malta 116

Poplar 158

Circle 163

The overall winner of the JV girls division was Chelsea Cryer of Watford City, North Dakota who ran the three mile course in 24:26. Second place went to Kailee Horn of Harlem with a time of 24:31.

Malta's Jada Nicholson ran in to a 3rd place finish and had a time of 24:51. Sarah Ware finished receiving 10th place and had a time of 28:28. There were no team scores for the JV race.

The Malta M-ette Cross Country team placed very well at the Scottie Invitational on the fast paved trail and nearly every member improving their time and posting personal bests for the season.

"This was such an exciting race to see unfold. The conditions were just right with it being much cooler than our practices earlier in the week and a little breeze to help keep the bugs away," Coach Solberg stated. "I kept saying that this was the race that a person could run very fast and post your best time. It's flat and paved so you can grip and really get going. I really expected the girls to step up and perform and they did."

Stiles ran her second best race of her cross country career and even though she was narrowly beat by her nemesis from Glasgow, she improved her time by 1:24.

Marley Manoukian looked very strong and fast, dropping over a minute from her time.

"Being very strong and competitive is helping her to drop time and I was really excited about how this turned out for her," Coach Solberg said.

Freshman Joanie Sjostrom before the race had been contemplating how she was going to start and found herself in a fast group and finished very well and dropped 2:46 from the tough Frazer meet.

Hailey Nicholson used her long stride to help her to drop over half a minute from her previous best.

"She's been working through some shoulder problems and I am really happy to see the improvement," Coach Solberg said.

Eva pushed her way through and had a very strong kick at the end and finished well dropping nearly one and a half minutes off of her best time.

Jada Nicholson having been under the weather at Frazer rebounded and dropped over a three minutes posting one of her best races. She and Jenise Amestoy pushed each other throughout the race both finishing with a very strong kick together. Amestoy dropped over a minute from her previous meet.

"This was fun to see and exactly how they finished at the state meet in Missoula last October," said Coach Solberg.

Monicha Williamson ran a fast paced race despite being under the weather and is looking stronger each meet.

Sarah Ware ran steady, looking much stronger and more confident and dropped over four and a half minutes from the tough Frazer meet of the week before.

"I was really pleased with her performance because it has been a struggle for her and this was really a confidence builder," Coach Solberg said. "Overall, this meet builds confidence and gets us excited."

The team's next action will be at the large Havre Invitational meet Saturday, October 4.