Morley claims girls title at Flathead Invitational

Makena Morley doesn’t mind being a front runner, and it’s a good thing, because the freshman Bigfork cross-country runner led the field in the varsity girls race from start to finish Saturday during the annual Flathead Invitational cross country meet at Kidsports Complex in Kalispell.

“She (Morley) runs with such confidence,” said Bigfork head cross-country coach Sue Loeffler. “She ran really relaxed and smooth today.”

Morley crossed the line in 18 minutes, 2 seconds, with a remarkable 52-second margin of victory over runner-up Paige Gilchrist of Hellgate High School.

“I just went as fast as I could,” Morley said.

Loeffler saw big improvements in all of her runners since their season opener in Cut Bank a little over a week ago.

“They all looked stronger, and they had much better running form,” Loeffler said. “We worked hard on hills this week, and it paid off. They attacked the hills and went down aggressively too. It’s cool to see that cross over from practice to a race.”

Morley said she wasn’t intimidated by the hilly course or the warm, dry conditions.

“It was really fun,” Morley said. “I like hills. I like striding out over the top — it makes you feel strong.”

Junior Chelsea Olson made up the other half of Bigfork’s two-member varsity girls team. Olson cracked the top 20 with a time of 21:24, which was good for 16th place.

“Chelsea is running incredible,” Loeffler said.

In the girls junior varsity race, Bigfork freshman Hailey Nissen and junior newcomer Tori Quirk finished 28th and 29th, respectively. Nissen clocked a 26:10 over the three-mile course, while Quirk turned in a time of 26:13.

Loeffler opted against entering any boys in the varsity race, but she was pleased with the team’s performance in the junior varsity competition. Bigfork junior Lane Thole led the way with a time of 21:10, finishing 47th out of 133 runners. Freshman Chance Kittle wasn’t far behind, running a 21:18 and finishing in 53rd place.

“This was Lane’s first race, and he ran really, really well,” Loeffler said. “He went out a little bit too fast the first mile, so that’s something we’ll work on.”

Loeffler said Kittle, who made his high school cross country debut last week in Cut Bank, benefited from another week of practice.

“Chance really learned a lot (from his first race), and we pushed him hard in practice this week,” Loeffler said.