Carlson finishes fifth in Flathead meet

By JORDAN DAWSON / Bigfork Eagle

Bigfork's cross country runners may have been the little fish in the big pond on Saturday running against more than 800 runners from more than 20 schools across the state, but that didn't seem to phase junior Kayla Carlson. She still landed herself a fifth place finish at the Flathead Invitional with a time of 19:50 on the three mile course, just 51 seconds behind the top finisher.

Charlie Edwards, a junior, had a time of 26:09 despite dealing with a reoccurring problem of scar tissue in her calf, an injury that may keep her out of competition at today's meet in Ronan.

Keely West, a junior from C.M. Russell High School in Great Falls, took first place for the girls at the meet with a time of 18:59. This was her third straight Flathead Invitational victory. Drew Coco, senior at Whitefish High School won the boys' race in 16:10.

Junior Bridger Mahlum was the only runner from Bigfork to compete in the varsity boys race. He placed 52nd out of more than 100 runners from class A and AA schools with a time of 18:37, a personal best on this course for Mahlum.

"We ran them pretty hard in practice this week so we knew they'd be tired," said head cross country coach Sue Loeffler. "And they still performed really well."

Evan Jordt, a sophomore, placed 18th out of 115 runners in the junior varsity race with a time of 19:14. Sophomore Spencer Jenko also had a personal best on the course of 20:45, which earned him 42nd place. Junior Chris Driver finished with a time of 25:19.

"We just keep improving each week," Loeffler said. "They're working really hard in practice. Part of that is because of coach Jessica Johnson. She runs with them every day and pushes them. She's a great asset to our team."

Bigfork is competing at a meet in Ronan today at 12:30 p.m. The meet had previously been scheduled for Saturday. The results will run in next week's Eagle.