Malta Cross Country 2017

The Malta Cross Country team has retained most of their runners from last season, a season that ended with a few runners at state and a 17th overall placing as a team at state.

Last year the M-ettes sent seven runners to state and only one of those runners, Mariah Salveson was lost to graduation. The team lost a total of four athletes to graduation also including Jada Nicholson, Eva Harms and Sara Ware.

In all, this year's Malta Cross Country team will have 11 runners, nine of which are returning and three that are brand new to the team.

TaChante Cole, Joanie Sjostrom and Monicha Williamson make up the team's senior class.

Cole had posted a time of 24:08 in last year's state meet, but she has also performed well at the state track meet last spring, running in the 800 meter and 1600 meter races.

"She has the most experience as a M-ette runner on the team," M-ettes Head Coach Thea Solberg said. "She has ran at state in each of her first three years. She has come into the season real strong and she has done a lot of running."

Sjostrom had been to state in her freshman and sophomore seasons.

Cole has been leading the group during practice runs but behind her has often been freshman Leslie Young, who will be running in the team's top five.

"She is coming in looking very strong and she really looks good for the beginning of the season," Coach Solberg said.

Jillian O'Brien, a sophomore, had the team's best time at state last year at 22:45. She will also be in the team's top five. O'Brien and Cole were selected as the team's Most Valuable runners last year.

"Jillian has some good experience from last year," Coach Solberg said. "She is working on conditioning and we are looking forward to see how well she does."

Also in the top five is Taylor Gilkerson, a junior who posted a time of 25:31.18 at the state meet last season.

"She was one of our most improved runners on the team," Coach Solberg said.

The team's fifth runner will be freshman Danie Rhodes.

"She comes in really looking strong and fast," Coach Solberg said. "It's going to be good to see how this group works."

Also with the team are juniors Taylor Eggebrecht, who had a time of 28.33 at state, Chloe Hunter who had played volleyball during her freshman and sophomore seasons and Reese Sjostrom, who had a time of 26.43 at state.

The sophomore class begins and ends with Kaycee Bond who had a time of 26:10.

Up to a few days before their first meet in Poplar last Saturday, August 26, the team had been working on their conditioning, which included a two-mile run and sprint.

"We're conditioning and getting used to running two to three miles comfortably because the race is a three mile race," Coach Solberg said. "You can't start out that way (running three miles). Your first practices are usually a couple of miles and some of the girls don't come in really well trained and you have to break the team in real slowly and work them into it."

With the recent heat waves that Phillips County and most of Montana has had, the team took full advantage of the cool morning conditions before school started last Wednesday, August 23, holding their team practices in the morning.

"We were able to have eight morning practices and that was very helpful because it was a good way to break in the running. And it was more comfortable," Coach Solberg said. "It can get really miserable when it's hot."