M-ettes pick up win over Poplar

Though the Malta Invitational was canceled on Saturday, September 7, the Malta M-ettes have already participated in two meets and most of the M-ettes have qualified for state.

The M-ettes ran at the Fergus High School Invitational on Monday, September 9. Malta scored 204 points and took seventh as a team.

“They did perfect,” Assistant Coach Fallon Handley told the PCN. “Fergus is one of my favorite meets to go to because it is probably the toughest we run. It’s rolling hills the whole way and it’s a good surface so they are not beating up their legs.”

Coach Handley went on to say that the course is so tough that it prepares the team to run every remaining course on the schedule. She also mentioned that the Fergus meet provided the team with a good look at a lot of competitive Class A runners. The meet featured 53 runners.

In Fergus, Malta was led by junior Leslie Young who ran a time of 24:31.7 and took twenty-ninth in Fergus. Young had also posted a season’s best in Wolf Point (Friday, August 30) of 23:49.9, a time that earned her a fifth-place finish.

“I didn’t want this girl that I was running with to beat me, so I ran faster,” Young said with a smile.

Seniors Jillian O’Brien and Kaycee Bond finished within a placing of each other, with O’Brien taking fifty-first posting a time of 28:35.59 and Bond finishing fifty-second with a time of 29:26.01. Freshman Kirsta Meisdalen took fifty-fifth with a time of 30:41.70. Freshman Isabelle Hallenberg took fifty-eighth with a time of 31:16.95 and Danie Rhodes took fifty-ninth with a time of 33:03.75.

The PCN caught up with the seniors during a practice last week. O’Brien was asked about her team all making state so early in the year.

“It’s awesome that everyone made it this year,” O’Brien said. “And we made it by a good margin. We didn’t just make it by a couple of seconds. We made it by a few minutes and that is pretty good.”

Bond had run a couple of events this summer, so she was asked how her season was going after doing extra work this past summer.

“I didn’t train much for the runs I did over the summer but I think I did pretty well at those events and summer running really helped,” Bond said. “My first meet, my knees hurt and my feet weren’t good and hurt too. But I am doing better and hopefully this year goes great.”

Though the Malta Invitational was canceled, the team looked at the bright side, and focused on the Fergus meet, which was scheduled two days later.

“It was nice to rest and get our energy back before Lewistown,” Bond said.

Young was asked about the team’s youngest runners and what they bring to the team.

“We are all just a big family and we tell each other everything,” Young said. “They are running really well. They are really outgoing and push each other pretty good and have good attitudes.”