Mundel takes all-state honors in cross country

Wildkat harrier Samantha Mundel climbed back from 35 places behind the leaders in the state cross-country meet last week to take all-state honors.

The sophomore finished in 15th place at 20:04.8 in the Oct. 20 showdown of the best in Class A.

“She did great. She was really confident, and I was really impressed,” coach Richard Menicke said. “She came on super strong at the end of the season.”

As a team, the Wildkats took eighth with 226 points. Corvallis won the meet.

The top runner on the boys side was Zayne Brunz, who took 46th at 18:05.4. The boys team took 14th place. Whitefish took the title.

Rounding out the scoring for the girls was Meredith Stolte, who took 33rd at 21:01.04, Carlee Brown, 52nd at 21:29.5, Tori Price, 58th at 21:45.1, and Brittany Swartz, 74th at 22:34.6.

Most of the Columbia Falls boys finished in a pack. Seth McCall was 67th, at 18:32, Glenn Morden was 92nd at 19:08.6, Jayce Fagerland, 93rd at 19:09.1, Shonn Roberts, 94th at 19:12, Dalton Nelson, 97th at 19:16 and Zac Fry, 99th at 19:24.7.

Menicke said he’s looking forward to next year, as most of the runners should return.