Mundel leads the way in Whitefish

Samantha Mundel won’t need to travel far from home to get to the Northwest Class A divisional race this Saturday.

Mundel, who lives up the line, could jog to the event in West Glacier. It isn’t unusual to see Columbia Falls’ fastest cross-country girl ever working out along U.S. 2.

Columbia Falls will host the race at the West Glacier Golf Course, and Mundel is the favorite to win. She won the Whitefish Invitational on Oct. 11 by 17 seconds with a time of 18:34.

“She’s really fit right now and super strong,” coach Richard Menicke said.

This is the first time in years the race will be held in West Glacier.

“I think it will be a pretty nice course,” Menicke said.

The boys will start at 1 p.m., and the girls at 1:45 p.m.

At Whitefish, Mundel was followed by teammates Hannah Freeman, 12th at 22:07, Miranda Livingston, 14th at 22:11, Hailey Peacock, 16th at 22:15, and Morgan Christianson, 20th at 22:34.

For the boys, Glenn Morden was 17th at 17:34, Winfield West, 22nd at 17:458, Hunter Peterson, 27th at 18:13, Will Nelson, 47th at 19:27, and Stephen Erickson, 50th at 19:33.

It was West’s first race under the 18-minute mark. As a team, the boys came in sixth and the girls were second.