Mountain View, Eagle claim 5A titles

Top miler Michael Slagowski grinded out his first cross country state title on a rainy, muddy day at Farragut Park in Athol. The 4:08 miler from Rocky Mountain ran 16:17 to win the Class 5A championship. Mountain View used superior depth to beat Rocky Mountain 65-79 for the boys team title.

RESULTS

Sophomore Rachel Morrin of Madison won the 5A girls championship race in 18:27.9. She beat runner-up Eve Jensen of Boise, a freshman, by 14 seconds. Eagle won the team championship with 69 points.

Pocatello freshman Caleb Armstrong picked up where his cousin Elijah left off in Class 4A. Armstrong won the state title in 16:05.7 for the fastest time of the day on the difficult course and led Pocatello to its fifth straight team championship. Caden Armstrong (Caleb’s brother), Malachi Armstrong (Elijah’s brother) and Chresten Armstrong (Caleb’s other brother) were 4-5-6. Pocatello scored 44 to win easily.

Meanwhile, Katherine Ruck of Moscow won the 4A girls title in 18:26 for the fastest time of the day. She won by 26 seconds. Century went 8-9-10-13 but still only edged Sandpoint by three, 59 to 62.

In Class 3A, Sugar-Salem’s boys put six in the top 17 to win the championship. Up front, however, it was Austin Stewart of Shelley running to a huge win in 16:05.9. Stewart won his second straight title and this one was by a wide margin of 41 seconds. In the girls race, Shelley scored 35 points for the win as Leann Larkin (19:18) and teammates Klarissa Andersen and Paytin Drollinger went 1-2-3.

The dominant program was Class 2A is Soda Springs, which swept the team and individual titles. The girls scored 20 points with six in the top nine for its record 10th straight title, including race winner Kathryne McCullough (20:26). Soda Springs’ Joshua Balls won the boys race by .1 seconds over Bear Lake sophomore Jackson Pratt, in 16:39.5.

In the 1A boys race, Marshall Wheeler of Victory Charter edged out Josiah Anderson of Logos, 16:46.8 to 16:55.4. But Logos pulled out the team win over Victory Charter thanks to a sixth-runner tiebreaker after both teams scored 55 points. Logos’ sixth guy was four spots ahead of VC’s.

In the 1A girls competition, freshman Sage Way of Cascade ran 21:09 for the win. Liberty Charter won with 44 points.