M-ettes Cross Country recap from the Browning Invite

Editor’s Note: The picture and story from last week’s PCN was mistakenly ran in place of the Browning Meet. The photo of Mira Heitland from last week was taken at the Browning meet on Saturday, October 6, and not the “2018 Golden Eagle Invitational in Fergus.” The Golden Eagle meet was held on Friday, September 14.

The Malta M-ettes Cross Country team ran in the Browning Invitational Cross Country Meet that was held at the Cut Bank Golf Course on Saturday, October 6.

Teams that participated were Columbia Falls, Havre, Browning, Fairfield, Shelby, Box Elder, Cut Bank, Sunburst, and Malta. Team scores were unavailable.

The overall winner of the girl’s 3 mile race was Kadia Miller of Havre, who ran the course in 21:03.

The Malta M-ettes placer’s are: Leslie Young was eleventh with a time of 24:45. Jillian O’Brien was fifteenth with a time of 25:23. Nikki Nicholson was twenty-second with a time of 26:24. Kaycee Bond was twenty-ninth with a time of 27:33. Mira Heitland was thirty-eighth with a time of 30:17. Danie Rhodes was forty-second with a time of 30:58. Taylor Eggebrecht was forty-eighth with a time of 37:43. Chloe Hunter was forty-ninth with a time of 42:46.

On Friday morning, October 5, we received an email that the cross country course at Browning was still snow covered from the early fall winter storm that hit the northern tier of Montana earlier in the week, and therefore, the meet would be moved to the Cut Bank Golf Course. This did not thwart our plans of traveling west to participate because we were already scheduled to stay in Cut Bank for the night because of the long bus trip over. This just made it easier, we could attend the Mustang vs. Cut Bank football game, stay at the motel there and sleep in and have a relaxing morning knowing that the travel to the golf course would only be about ten minutes by bus on Saturday morning.

We awoke to probably one of the most gorgeous days you could imagine for this time of year.At race time it was fifty two degrees, there was no wind, no rain or snow. The Cut Bank Golf Course is located just a few miles west and south, and is nestled along the Cut Bank Creek, with sandstone rim rocks as a back drop. The trees dressed in their fall colors were beautiful.

Nearly fifty runners gathered at the start line. With the sound of the gun, they shot off down the fairway and off into the distance, running up and down the steep hills, down the long greens and zigzagging their way back to the finish area where many fans were waiting for the final outcome.

Leslie Young, Jillian O’Brien, and Nikki Nicholson all ran in the front of the pack, jockeying for good positions. Leslie and Jillian ran in the thirteenth and fifteenth spots for most of the race, and Leslie pulling away to secure an eleventh place finish, with a tremendous burst at the finish line, and missing the medals by one place. These girls all ran smart, bursting forth at the start but not so fast that you run out of gas, all placing in the top half of the runners.

Kaycee Bond ran a smart race as well, shooting out at the start and jockeying for a position near the front half of the pack. She’s improved quite a bit this season, but with more strength and confidence, where she had been holding back and now is pushing and staying in the middle, and finishing with a strong kick. Mira Heitland, German exchange student and new to running, started out and paced with Kaycee for quite a bit of the race, but fell back and then finished with a strong kick down the long straightaway area to cross the finish line.

Danie Rhodes who has been nursing a hip injury this season, ran a steady pace along the flat grassy and sometimes very hilly course, and finished with a nice burst of speed to cross the finish line.

Seniors Taylor Eggebrecht and Chloe Hunter, each having some discomfort from injuries and soreness, took up the challenging course, and ran steady and finished the race with bursts of speed as well.

Overall, this race was a good one for the team. Each race is good experience, you gain knowledge and more experience. Every course is different and sometimes your finish time is not an indication of how well you do. Placement is a good gauge, and with this race, the girls had good finish places. Their times were comparable to the challenging Havre meet of a couple weeks ago. We are looking forward to our last meet of the regular season, on Friday the twelfth, at the Harlem Golf Course.