Harrington wins Butte XC Invite, Great Falls High second
Ryan Harrington topped the field and the Great Falls High cross country team placed four in the top 20 overall to take second as a team Friday at the Butte Invite.
Harrington crossed the finish line in the 5k race in 15:22.90, while teammate John Spinti was fourth at 15:46.30. Bison junior Conrad Schruth was 11th and senior Ashtyn Rask was 18th as the Bison boys finished runner-up to Billings West.
C.M. Russell High’s Aizalyn Flaten was fifth on the girls’ side, running a personal-best time of 19:33.20.
Emerson Hamma was the top runner for the Rustler boys in 38th, while Grace Kauffman was 32nd and Caroline Hermiller was 47th for the CMR girls. Morgan Dailey paced the Great Falls High girls finishing 48th.
The Great Falls High and CMR squads head to Missoula next Saturday for the Mountain West Invitational, one of the biggest races in the region.
Here’s a look at the Electric City cross country teams this season.
Great Falls High
The Bison boys figure to be in the mix for a state trophy at the end of the year, finishing second to start the year in Kalispell and third last week in Bozeman.
Seniors Ryan Harrington and John Spinti have led the way for Great Falls High with top-three finishes in both the first two meets behind Bozeman’s Nathan Neil, while junior Conrad Schruth and senior Ashtyn Rask have also put in high-level performances.
“We’re pretty solid through four (in the lineup) right now,” Bison head coach Bob Stingley said. “We’re still trying to find a healthy fifth to help us out a little bit because Bozeman is pretty solid with their first guy and everybody else is packed together through 10th place on, so they’re a pretty tough bunch to break into.”
Harrington has finished fourth at the state meet the last two years in a row, and is coming off a fine track season in which he took second in the mile race and third in the two-mile. Harrington also ran at the Nike Outdoor Nationals in Eugene, Oregon following the track season, setting two personal bests.
“He puts in a lot of work,” Stingley said. “We ran pretty hard all of last year. He’s just been a really good leader and pulling those younger kids along.”
Spinti was third at the Kalispell Invite and then jumped to second in Bozeman with a personal-best 5k time of 15:40.3.
“That’s just a huge jump for him because I think he’s only the third guy that’s ran under 16 (minutes) for us,” Stingley said. “He went from one week just breaking 16 to last week running further under 16, he’s really doing well and more confident.”
Schruth started the season with a seventh-place showing in Kalispell and Rask broke into the top 15 in Bozeman with a 13th-place finish. Schruth and Harrington also both pull double duty playing soccer for Great Falls High.
“For our whole boys’ group, we’re just taking the attitude that every meet is kind of just practice until we get to the state meet,” Stingley said. “We’re never going to be fresh, because they’re always going to be playing a soccer game the day before or after, so we’re working really hard and trying to rest them when we can.”
Senior Vail Van Voast is a team leader for the Bison girls, while sophomore Morgan Dailey has also shown much improvement, Stingley said.
“They’re improving every week and that’s what we like to see,” Stingley said.
CMR
Aizalyn Flaten had a tremendous freshman season, earning sixth at the state meet last fall and was also All-State in track with a third-place finish at state in the 300- meter hurdles.
The sophomore kicked off the year in sixth in Kalispell and was 14th last week at the Bozeman Invite.
“I think her practices are translating to her races,” CMR head coach Nathan Gregier said. “She’s running really hard at practices and a lot of times she’s running with the boys at practice because she’s that good. She’s just working on gaining some confidence because as a young runner, sometimes confidence comes later. But she’s just extremely consistent.”
Junior Grace Kauffman is the No. 2 runner and earned 39th at the Kalispell Invite, while Caroline Hermiller is stepping up in her senior season, Gregier said.
“The last two seasons (Kauffman) started off healthy but as the season has progressed, just the wear and tear has kind of limited what she’s able to do at the end of the season,” Gregier said. “But she’s healthy and racing really well right now. Caroline is our senior captain this year and this is the best racing that she’s done.”
Sophomore Emerson Hamma finished 41st in Kalispell but jumped to 36th last week in Bozeman, while Brayden Sundquist was 39th in Kalispell.
Hamma has had issues with asthma and allergies but has been able to continue his growth as a sophomore, Gregier said.
“Both of the first two races he had significant asthma issues but he’s been able to continue to improve on what he was doing last year, which is great to see,” Gregier said.
Sundquist is also a soccer player for CMR and is a senior captain on the cross country team.
“He’s never rested going into races but he’s made some significant gains this year,” Gregier said. “For the boys, we’ve had some injuries and things like that, so we haven’t run with our full varsity crew yet. But, I’m looking forward to seeing what they can do when they’re healthy and we’ve had some JV boys step up and do a nice job.”
Micah Gonzalez, Garrett Bodily and Cole Stuart are all also Rustler soccer players and have not been able to race yet but will work their way into the lineup over the course of the season.
“Right now, we’re still building, which means they’re going into races tired,” Gregier said. “It’s not like football or basketball or soccer, where you’re record depends on whether or not you make state. So, a lot of times kids are running races tired so that at the end of season when we taper off, their legs should be fresh and having their optimal performances.”
This article originally appeared on Great Falls Tribune: Harrington wins Butte XC Invite, Great Falls High second
