Area athletes stride for glory

Oct. 29—Today, almost 1,000 high school runners will converge on the Lewis-Clark State College Cross Country Trail to determine 10 individual and team state champions in the sport.

The Logos girls already know how it feels to hold up a championship trophy. The Knights edged out Raft River to win their first Class 1A team title in 2021 at Eagle Island State Park in Eagle, Idaho. Returning runner Sara Casebolt led the way for Logos with a fifth-place finish in that race with a time of 19 minutes, 59.88 seconds.

The girls will look to defend their title at 1:30 p.m., and the boys compete at 3 p.m. in the final meet of the day.

"Having a win under our belt has taken some of the pressure off this year," sixth-year Logos coach Paula Casebolt said. "Looking forward to be going out there being defending state champs."

The boys also fared well last year, finishing fourth. Zach Atwood just missed on a top-10 finish with a time of 17:27.82 to take 11th. Atwood gets a chance to improve that on a familiar course.

"The thing with Zach and Sara, they are both super disciplined," Paula Casebolt said. "They are always thinking 'How can I make my form better.' "

Logos dominated the district meet Oct. 19 at the same course.

Casebolt (19:17) cut 42 seconds off last year's state time to win the individual title, beating teammate Mari Calene by 56 seconds. The Knights took seven of the top nine places. Deary's Kaylee and Araya Wood took fourth and fifth, respectively.

The Logos boys took three of the top four spots at the district meet. Atwood (17:23) took the individual title ahead of teammate Simeon Rauch (17:54), with Bear Lopez in fourth (18:30). Clearwater Valley's Wyatt Anderberg ran an 18:13 to place third.

Atwood ran a blistering 16:43 at the LCSC course Oct 1 during the Inland Empire Championships. Casebolt also ran her best 5K time of the season in that race at 19:16.

"The kids are super familiar with this course," Paula Casebolt said of her team's impending fourth event at LCSC.

Paula Casebolt said running at a course close to home has advantages and disadvantages.

"Being on a course that we love and sleeping in our own beds," Paula Casebolt said of the upside. "The downside I think, a little bit, when you travel there is a lot of team bonding going on. We are trying to recreate that this week."

The coach said they would have a team dinner after Friday's walkthrough of the course. She talked about the importance of the walkthrough, although they had run the course so many times. She also said runners have to have a different mentality at this point compared to the other meets during the season, saying that most of the season runners are focused on having "super-fast" times and finding what pacing they have.

"In (the) state (meet), it is all about place," Paula Casebolt said. "It always tends to be a really fast race."

Potlatch also qualified its two teams, as well as Deary's girls.

Moscow qualified its two teams to Class 4A meet. The girls start at 10 a.m. with the boys scheduled to begin around 90 minutes later.

Cora Crawford led the girls during the Oct. 20 meet at the same course, finishing second at 19:15.23 as the Bears won their first team title in 12 years.

Kieran Long and Jason Swam had top-five finishes on the boys side.

Isbelle can be reached at sports@lmtribune.com, (208) 848-2268 or on Twitter @RandyIsbelle.

Area competitors at state

CLASS 4A

Moscow — Boys: Levi Beus, Noah Bujnicki, Sayer Latta, Noah Lingo, Kelton Long, Kieran Long, Jason Swam. Girls: Cora Crawford, Christine Hall, Mia Heinlein, Anna Lynn, Geneva McClory, Lauren Pollard, Indigo Wulfhorst.

CLASS 1A

Deary girls — Macie Ashmead, Gracie Beck, Emily Mottern, Emily Scott, Araya Wood, Kaylee Wood.

Genesee boys — Ben Farr.

Logos — BOYS: Zach Atwood, Ethan Bremer, David Daniels, Bear Lopez, Clive Miller, Simeon Rauch, Bo Whitling. GIRLS: Alyssa Blum, Mari Calene, Sara Casebolt, Lizzie Crawford, Chloe Jankovic, Cora Johnson, Josephine Wyrick.

Potlatch — girls: Jessica Biltonen, Rebecca Cerutti, India Luker, Wisteria Mulford, Britton Tunnell, Lucy Tunnell, Victoria Weber.

BOYS: Caleb Laprath, Marius Luker, Colton Minden, Jonas Oliver, Jude Oliver, Micah Smith, Tanner Smith.

Prairie boys — Jackson Enneking, Dylan Klapprich, Morgan Poxleitner, Landon Riener, Ben Secrest, Zane Uptmor, Chase VonBargen.