Panhandle stars take 2nd

It was a case of seconds for North Idaho runners Saturday at the state cross country meets, including runner-up finishes by a pair of defending champs.

Coeur d’Alene sophomore Kinsey Gomez and Sandpoint senior Megan Bartlett, both state champs a year ago, took second in their respective 5A and 4A races at Eagle Island State Park near Boise. Lake City junior C.J. Helbling finished second for the second year in a row to Eric Fitzpatrick of Boise.

Gomez finished second to junior Liz Brandon of Eagle. Gomez finished in 18 minutes, 32.11 seconds on the 3.1-mile course. Brandon (18:08.33) finished about 150 meters ahead.

Rhianna Grossman of Lake City took sixth (19:05.95). Teammate Molly Mitchell was 19th (19:36.90).

“It was smoking fast,” CdA coach Cathy Compton said of the pace. “It was really remarkable racing.”

Brandon finished sixth last year behind Gomez at state.

Gomez collapsed after crossing the finish line.

“She’s going to be fine,” Compton said. “She’ll come back and be stronger for it.”

Bartlett finished in 18:27.54 behind Emily Nist of Bishop Kelly (18:20.30).

“It was a great race,” Sandpoint coach Matt Brass said. “Megan had the lead through the first mile, but then Nist threw in a decent surge and built up about a 5-second lead halfway through. It was a bold move in the middle of the race. It was a phenomenal race to watch. I couldn’t have been happier for Megan.”

Helbling posted a time of 15:57.92 while Fitzpatrick’s time was 15:46.98.

Helbling fought through a difficult season. After battling with a stress fracture last spring, Helbling didn’t put in the miles that he normally would have during the season.

He went out hard at the start and thought things were going well. He briefly thought he had a chance to break Fitzpatrick.

But it was Helbling that ran out of gas with about 1,000 meters to go.

Mountain View’s girls won the 5A title (92 points) while Twin Falls (78) won the 5A boys.

In 4A, Preston’s girls won and Bishop Kelly’s boys won.

•In 3A, the Timberlake girls captured their first state trophy, finishing fourth (123). They were led by junior Alex Turbin, who finished 16th (20:41.21).

Bear Lake won the girls title.

The Timberlake boys, ranked second going into the race, fell apart, finishing seventh. The Tigers’ top finishers were juniors Ryan Sacksteder (14th) and Brian Tucker (16th).

Teton’s boys won the 3A title.

Other top area finishers were Dylan Sweeney of Bonners Ferry, who took 12th (17:35.02) and Jake Tisdell of Priest River, who finished 17th (17:41.69).

•In 2A, Adam Denham of Clark Fork took fifth (16:59.78). Dillon Zarpentine of Kootenai took 10th (17:29.12) and Luke Iott of Coeur d’Alene Charter was 11th (17:30.14).

The Coeur d’Alene Charter girls earned a trophy, finishing fourth (134). Sadie Iott led Charter by taking 17th (20:59.42).