Jessica Spear of Tonasket beginning her second lap on the Tonasket course during the cross country meet on Saturday, Sept. 12. Spear finished in fourth place with a time of 20:53.Photo by Emily Hanson

TONASKET – The Tigers girls’ cross country team finished the Tonasket Invite in second place with 65 points, behind only Chelan with 21 points, while the boys’ team finished in third place with 64 points behind Chelan with 44 points and Republic with 31 points.

The Omak girls’ team came in third place with 71 points while the Lake Roosevelt team came in fourth with 88 points. In the boys’ race, Omak came in fourth place with 84 points and Lake Roosevelt came in fifth place with 120 points. Oroville, Cascade and Liberty Bell did not have enough athletes run to compete as teams.

“All the girls ran really well in their first time on our course; the team potential is there,” Bob Thornton, head coach, said. “Damon Halvorsen ran a great race. He showed he is ready to run at the next level as a top runner. The rest of the guys showed the strength we can have as a team this year.”

For the middle school teams, David Moreno of Tonasket came in sixth place with a time of 11 minutes. Adam Halvorsen of Tonasket came in eighth place at 11:22 with C. Iverson from Oroville behind him by one second. Finishing off the TMS boys’ team, Joaquin Polito came in 11th place at 13:48 and Abe Podkranic came in 12th place at 13:54.

For the girls’ middle school race, S. Speiker of Oroville came in first place with a time of 9:51. The three Tonasket Middle School girls were Norma Ornelas who came in eighth place at 12:47, Liberty Newton who finished in ninth place at 12:55 and Sarah Green, who came in 10th place at 12:57.

“I was really please with how the middle school ran in their first ever cross country race,” Thornton said. “The future for Tonasket cross country look good.”

The next cross country meet is the Liberty Bell Invitational on Tuesday, Sept. 22 at 3:30 p.m.