Cross country competes in tough race

Raider Cross Country travelled to Spokane Valley to compete in the Runners Soul Erik Anderson Invitational last week.

There were more than 300 runners present from all classifications of schools across Eastern Washington and North Idaho at the race.

“Our boys’ and girls’ teams both pushed themselves very hard to compete in the race in Spokane against some very large schools,” Head Coach Gary Darnold said.

Will Friedlander led the Raiders, finishing with a personal record time of 19 minutes, 36.86 seconds. That is an improvement of over three minutes when compared to his time last year. Cameron Tillman improved his time by more than two minutes from a year ago, finishing at 21:49. Cole Trotter also improved by two minutes at 21:10.47. Kaden Trotter cut two-and-a-half minutes off his 2014 time, finishing in 23:51.

Bradley Wilder improved his PR time by a minute, at 21:25. Corban Wilder trimmed two minutes off his PR time, finishing with a time of 22:04.

Ashley Palmer led the Raider girls with a seventh-place finish time of 24:14.91. Kayla St. Pierre was the other girl Raider at the race, finishing 12th with a PR of 25:13.

“Our best comparison is from last year’s race in Spokane to this year’s race,” Darnold said, “and of the five boys and girls who competed there last year, each and every one of them PR’d with PR’s by from 30 seconds up to three-and-a-half minutes faster than the same race last year.”

The team will have a bye this week to prepare for the next big race at Kettle Falls Oct. 3. The CAN-AM Invite is hosted by Colville. The race will feature a large competitive field that will test the Raiders and provide good feedback on what they need to improve for the late-season stretch.