Sandpoint Runners Strong At Own Invitational Girls Capture First Place Behind Baker; Boys Settle For Second In Tie-Breaker

Sandpoint High School captured the girls cross country title and came in second in a tie-breaker in the boys race Friday afternoon at the Sandpoint Invitational.

The Bulldogs’ Emily Baker won the girls race in a time of 21 minutes, 38 seconds on the 3-mile course at Hidden Lakes Golf Course.

“I hoped I had a chance to win, so I had to push the second mile real hard,” Baker said.

Baker was in second place behind Joy Bucher of Bonners Ferry at the 1-mile point, but by the time she passed the 2-mile point, Baker held a comfortable lead over the entire field. Bucher finished second, followed by Saskia Neher of Sandpoint and Kari Newby of Coeur d’Alene.

Chris Cole of Coeur d’Alene won the boys race in a time of 16:56. At the 1-mile point, Cole was in fifth place and then made his move. By the 2-mile mark, Cole was in second place and waited until the last half-mile to pass Quint Gidley of Libby, Mont.

“Today was a race of patience. I knew that I just had to go out there and do what I was supposed to do,” Cole said. “I made surges throughout the race, and I just stuck behind the Libby runner until I passed him in the last half-mile.”

Sandpoint won the girls race with 39 points, despite missing two of its varsity runners. (One due to injury, the other because of a family vacation.)

“I was very excited about the success of our team, especially since we weren’t running at full strength,” Sandpoint coach Cheryl Klein said. “It was a delightful surprise to see how well we stack up regionally.”

Bonners Ferry’s girls finished second, Coeur d’Alene was third, Lake City fourth and Lewiston fifth.

The boys race came down to a tie-breaker between Libby and Sandpoint with 68 points each. Libby won the title because it placed its sixth runner ahead of Sandpoint’s sixth runner.

Lake City was third, Post Falls finished fourth and Lewiston fifth.