BIGFORK — Whitefish has a fab freshman and Polson has a terrific team.
The Lady Pirates rode a 1-2-5 finish by Morgan Delaney, Quinn Delaney and Sara Dumouchel to a convincing team win at the Western A Fall Classic held Friday.
Morgan Delaney won in 17 minutes, 58.1 seconds; her sophomore sister Quinn clocked 18:21.5 to take second. Libby's Capri Farmer (18:44.9) was third and Hamilton's Aleigha Child (19:11.2) was fourth at the meet, which drew 13 schools.
Dumouchel, an eighth-grader, was next at 19:34.8; Polson freshman Tayrn Cochran was 12th at 20:40.3.
Polson scored 59 points, with Hamilton taking second at 87 in front of a tight trio of teams: Columbia Falls (94, with a spread of just 48.3 seconds), Corvallis (95) and Libby (99).
Bigfork's Toren Wenz was ninth in the girls race; Columbia Falls saw Noelle Svennungsen, Tessa Pacheco and Gwen Watkins finish 13-14-17.
Whitefish's top finisher was Sierra Gibb in 19th; Libby's Kayleigh Desch was 18th.
Speaking of the Bulldogs, Porter Shehan followed his win in the No. 3 race at least week's Helena 7-on-7 with another win Friday. The freshman ran his second-best time of the season, 16:07.0.
Polson senior Jackson Bontadelli was second at 16:11.7, followed by Libby senior Cody Watson (16:34.0) and Browning senior Koen Calf Robe (16:59.9).
Corvallis junior Braden Anderson led a 5-6-9-13-16 finish for the Blue Devils, who won the boys team title with 49 points.
Columbia Falls, led by the 8-11-15 finish of Connor Jodan, Brayden Swope and Kelan Moran, was next with 91 points. Ronan, with Will Normandeau 10th and Matiya Nenemay 12th, finished third at 99. Libby was fourth at 116, followed by Browning (116) and Whitefish (139).
Other top finishers included Browning's Petyon DeRoche, eighth; and Bigfork's Otto Schurke, 15th.
This was the final tuneup ahead of next week's cross country state championships, to be held at Amend Park in Billings.
Full results can be found at athletic.net and competitivetiming.com.