Girls X-Country Takes Division Title
Julius Macker
Free Press
HELENA - It was a familiar scene for the Whitefish High School girls cross country team; a stream of gold jerseys breaking over their opponents like a wave. But this time it was different. They had entered uncharted territory - the school's first ever girls state championship.
The 44th annual MHSA Cross Country Championships at Bill Robert Golf Course solidified the Bulldog girls cross country team legacy after coming oh-so-close a year ago. Whitefish, which beat Ronan by one point in the divisional tourney last year, claimed third at state in 2006, also by just one point. The 2007 state results were a bit different. Whitefish left the rest of Class A in its wake, scoring 50 points for first place with it closest competition, Hamilton, at 146.
Loni Hanson this year's individual state champion (and Whitefish's second in school history since Donda Head did it in 1971), truly was a story of work ethic. Last year she placed 35th at state.
Overall Whitefish landed six girls in the top 25. Hanson was first with a time of 19 minutes and 28 seconds while Lauren Kuennen was fifth (19:46), Bailey Eaton 11th (19:57), Carly Schwickert 16th (20:13), Stella Holt 17th (20:15), and Clare Miller 23rd (20:31).
Whitefish head coach Bill Brist says that this year's team really found out what they needed to do to win a state championship a year ago when they felt as though they had an outside shot. What they learned proved to be valuable, Brist says.
"We found out that it takes more than being good enough to win. We found that you have to go and be prepared to run the type of race that will put you in position to have your runners closer to the front the entire race. Runners can't just say that they are going to run that way. It takes the right frame of mind, the right kind of training, and the right amount of confidence to pull it off."
Sophomore Loni Hanson was one of the many girls that put in that effort to try and improve both mentally and physically.
"I ran a lot of trails over the summer," she said. "I logged a lot of miles and made a lot of mental improvements. I found out what I needed to do to push myself- my body is dying, but I have to keep going - don't let them pass you."
Brist saw the determination in Hanson and told her what she needed to do to compete with the best the state had to offer.
"I let her know that if she expected to run with our boys on the trails in the summer, that I would expect her to run with the fastest girls in the area," Brist said. "I explained that Terrinee McCready is from our area, and Loni understood that meant that she would need to believe that she could compete with the best in the state in order to run with Terrinee. She agreed, and from that point I would always allow her to run with the boys when she felt that she wanted to."
Loni ran with the boys and proved worthy of their respect. As for her training partner McCready, well, Hanson the pupil found a way to beat the master who placed third, seven seconds behind Hanson.
Fifth place finisher Lauren Kuennen was a lot like Hanson. She had a track background and flat out wanted to get better.
"She wanted to improve her endurance to help her keep at her maximum speed for a longer amount of time. Cross country was a great way for her to acheive this," Brist said. "Then, if almost by accident, she found that the group of girls she ran with were a great group of people. I think she found that being part of the cross country team was a lot of fun, and she loved having a 'family' that she could help to achieve what had never been achieved before. Like Loni, Lauren really came out of last season with the determination to improve. She did a lot of extra work with running and other fitness building and found that with the added speed developed from track, she became pretty fast and could hold it for a long time."
And Like Hanson, Kuennen was much improved. She vaulted from 31st place a year ago to fifth this year.
Eaton, Schwickert, and Holt were a prize of freshman talent throughout the year and it is evident with their finishes at state that the Bulldogs may have just claimed one title in a string to come in the next three years. Senior co-captain Clare Miller, who placed 25th this year, is the only surviving member of Brist's first group.
"She was part of the team that underwent the transformation from one that always started out at the back of the pack at the start of the race to one that moved through the middle of the pack last season to the team that ran right to the front of every race this season," Brist said. "She began by running over 24 minutes as a freshman to a senior that ran 19:19."
Miller now sits alone as the sixth fastest 3-mile runner in Bulldogs history. Cross country, as unheralded as it is, is a sport of grit, determination and continual pain. If you were to ask Brist what makes a cross country team a team, he would start by telling you how the uniqueness of an individual is of primary importance for the team.
"The sport of cross country is considered an individual sport, so this uniqueness is actually a good thing," he said. "But, each individual really needs to want to belong to something larger than themselves. Something that can achieve something even larger than any one individual. That's the team aspect of the sport. Each race can only have one individual winner, but as a team, everyone can share success."
The Bulldogs continued to grow as individuals and through a season that will forever define Whitefish cross country, they became a family, a family that had only one ally.
"Before each race the girls use a chant that has been taught to them. 'Who is your friend? PAIN.' They know it's easier to run through discomfort and pain if they have company going through the same thing. They've been able to embrace pain as part of racing, and for the most part, they along with their teammates, have been able come to terms with it- and run through it."