Sierra Lutheran Cross Country team attends meet in Idaho
The Sierra Lutheran High School Cross Country team team attended the 2017 Bob Firman Invitational Cross Country Meet in Boise, Idaho this past weekend for the first time. The meet is named after Bob Firman, an icon in the XC community who has attended this meet for the past 43 years, handing out the awards.
There was a total of 4600 runners registered from 146 schools and 8 states and a province from Canada. The course has a wide start line that accommodates up to 400 runners in each race. It begins with a mowed hayfield for 400 meters, then forces the athletes onto a trail where they are running sometimes 4-5 abreast and jockeying for position. The challenging course includes a densely lined reed and tree area, a ½ meter jump onto a beach of sand to the mile marker, and a grass trail winding uphill and downhill.
SLHS runners Andreas Gilson & Jake Tack competed in the boys freshman race finishing respectively 135th in 20:34.9 and 196th in 21:59.0 out of a total of 267 competitors. The next race up was DII boys with Teagan Hansen, blistering the course in 17:04.7 for a 26th place finish out of 337 runners.
The Elite race with Jared Marchegger was up next for the SLHS runners with Jared finishing in 17:08.9 in 131st place out of 207.
The final race for the SLHS team was DII girls with Emily McNeely and Taylor Davison competing finishing respectively 28th in a time of 20.33.3 (PR) and 62nd in a time of 21:26.7 out of 246 runners. SLHS coaches Marson, Williams and Kubel were impressed by the outstanding performances and finishes by the team considering this was their first venture on this challenging course and enormous number of runners that were in each race.