Maloney, Keith Overcome Hilly Course
Eight high school cross country teams traveled to the top of Schweitzer Mountain Saturday morning to compete in the first Sandpoint Invitational held 4,700 feet up in the sky.
With clear skies and 75-degree mountain air, the teams raced 3.1 miles on a trail of rocks, mud and almost straight-up hills.
Nicole Maloney of Sandpoint and Lake City’s Mike Keith proved to be the most capable of withstanding the mountain as they were the first girl and boy to reach the finish line.
Maloney took an early lead in the girl’s race, but was soon passed by Coeur d’Alene’s Eva Unruh half way up a steep, .75-mile grade. Maloney regained her speed on the downhill slope and overtook Unruh with 1 mile left.
“It was so hard,” said an exhausted Maloney at the finish line. “My legs cramped up on the hill, and that’s when Eva passed me. But when I caught her on the downhill path, I told myself, ‘I’ve got to beat her. I can’t let her pass me again.”’
Although Unruh didn’t get first, her second-place finish made the Vikings team champions.
“The course is brutal,” said Viks coach Kent Eggleston, who, along with other coaches, ran the trail after the kids were finished. “It was certainly designed strictly for a workout. Some of our girls ran extremely well and others just did the best they could. Eva put out a lot of effort and we won.”
In the boys race, Lake City and Bonners Ferry battled for first.
Post Falls runners Jason Kunz and James Shepard took an early lead, but it was Keith who crossed the finish line first with a time of 19:35.46. Teammate Charlie Miller followed less than a second later. Kunz and Shepard trailed by more than a minute, placing 11th and 12th.
The one-two finish didn’t give Lake City first place. Josh Sherven, Jarred Ekstrom and Winter Braden captured third, fourth and fifth places, earning Bonners Ferry the team title by two points over LC.
, DataTimes