The Cardinal Classic Still Going Strong

With near perfect weather the Cardinal Classic took place last Saturday at Kelly Park in Soda Springs.  Over 1700 athletes from sixty-two different schools competed in the races.  A total of six different races occurred that included a boys and girls division for middle school, junior varsity and varsity.  

With a meet of this magnitude a lot of work goes into the planning and execution of running this event.  Those are sentiments that Soda Springs head coach Jeff Horsley echoed when he stated, “We couldn't do this without the help of our sponsors and the community members that step in.  We are thankful for everyone's contributions that allow us to have what I think is one of if not the best meet in the state.”  Dozens of volunteers chip in to help make the event a successful one year in and year out.  

With teams coming from all over the Intermountain West the Cardinal Classic has become one of the premier races for schools to try to attend.  The course itself has a variety of challenges with changes in running surfaces, hills, log jumps and curves.  The runners get to experience both sun and shade as they make their way along the trails.  The course also boasts some beautiful views as it passes through the cedars and brush of the hillside as well as the quaking aspen and cool streams on the later part of the race.  This is a significant change to many of the courses across that state that take place on the well groomed lawns of parks and
golf courses.

Locally runners from both Soda Springs and Grace in both middle and high school participated in the races with some showing great finish times while others are just getting started in the sport.

In the girls 2500 meter middle school race Soda Springs finished in fifth place as a team with Anna Uskoski placing as the top overall runner in that race with a time of 11:26.89.  Meanwhile Grace’s lone middle school girl runner was Ruby Coleman, a sixth grader who finished in the top half of competitors with a time of 14:42.12.

The middle school boys teams did not place as high in team points, finishing with Soda Springs in thirteenth and Grace in sixteenth but still had some great performances.  With a total of 266 runners Soda’s highest place was Ruben Uskoski who finished in fifth place with a time of 10:42.08.  Grace’s top finisher, who was a little further down on the list, but still in the top half of competitors was Tylor Johnson with a time of 12:32.52.

Neither Soda Springs or Grace had enough runners run in the junior varsity races to earn a team score.  Soda however did still have runners in those races with Austin Housley, Noah Hansen, Bridger Dilworth, and Gimhana Samasiri competing for the boys team and Gracie Moldenhauer, Mylee White and Miriam Evans competing for the girls team.  

Of the boys thirty-three teams that competed in the varsity race Soda Springs came in at seventeenth with Grace at nineteenth.  The boys varsity race had 231 racers.  The boys varsity race also saw a new course record set by Habtamu Wetzel from Star Valley Wyoming with a time of 15:50.13

The girls varsity race had twenty-nine teams compete with Grace finishing at seventeenth and Soda coming in at an impressive third.  Soda’s Lizzie Beutler finished seventh individually and Grace’s Cally Coleman became the Grizzlies first ever top twenty medal recipient when she placed eleventh individually.

I chatted briefly with each head coach of the two local schools.  Coach Horsley stated, “I was pretty happy with our girls.  That's pretty good for the little guys to hang with the big guys and be competitive.  Our boys are young and I think they are going to continue to improve as well.”

Coach Smith from Grace commented, “This is the first cross country season for half of the kids on the team.  I feel like the pieces are starting to come together, where every week it seems like a different kid is making breakthroughs and they are coming together as a team.”

Next up for both the Grizzlies and the Cardinals is yet another large competitive meet.  On Friday both schools will travel to Idaho Falls to compete in the Tiger/Grizz Invitational.  All of the varsity results from the Cardinal Classic are listed with this article.

Soda Springs Girls

Lizzie Beutler (7) 21:00.52

India Galloway (21) 21:31.71

Ellie Wood (29) 21:56.54

Rebekah Evans (38) 22:20.69

Rosie Harris (77) 23:35.35

Courtnee Gronning (82) 23:39.97

Mollie Renfroe (131) 25:10.07

Grace Girls

Cally Coleman (11) 21:05.46

Kallie Stoddard (76) 23:35.17

Lilly Gilbert (101) 24:17.92

Breanna Heer (123) 24:56.48 

Shaston Lloyd (159) 26:00.28

Hayden Ball (186) 28:52.42 

Soda Springs Boys

Landon Moldenhauer (33) 18:26.44

Jonathan Beutler (62) 19:08.26

Kage Kirby (115) 19:58.42

Dre Lloyd (134) 20:24.21

Jaxon Horsley (141) 20:35.04

Grace Boys

Adrian Mejia (30) 18:18.42

Brock Johnson (43) 18:42.26

Colt Coleman (92) 19:34.77

Jonah Wilkerson (133) 20:23.25

Cutler Andersen (211) 23:22.13