Melville leads LRS cross country team in first meet of the season

For the first time in recent history, there will be an entire team of cross country athletes running in a Broncos uniform this season.

This year marks the first season of both a boys and girls cross country team, solely of students from Sprague.

The Broncos have a total of 11 runners with Ethan and Erik Hughes, John Rhoades, Parker Cappel, Sydney Layne and Clayton Miller representing the boys. On the girls’ side are Hannah Brittain, Mya Lynch, Rose Melville, Malea Canaday and Alexis Gilchrist.

After a delayed start, the team began their season at the District 7 League race hosted at Northwest Christian on Sept. 12.

Melville won the girls’ 5,000 meter race with a time of 24 minutes and 29 seconds, which was over one minute faster than second-place Madison Janke, of Northwest Christian, who clocked in at 25:50.

Other finishers for the LRS girls were Brittain in 36:53.61 and Lynch in 43:53.9.

Ethan Hughes led the LRS boys with a time of 40:31.32, while Erik Hughes finished in 47:59.46 and Rhoades clocked in at 49:44.29.

No official team scores were recorded for the LRS boys and girls teams due to a lack of eligible runners. Teams must have at least five eligible runners to qualify for team scoring.

First-year Head Coach Liz Melville described the cross country course at Northwest Christian as one of the tougher hill courses, which can be challenging for runners, especially athletes who are competing in their first high school race.

Another factor contributing to the runners’ times was the lack of time spent practicing outdoors during the first two weeks of the season.

Like many athletic teams across Eastern Washington, team could only practice outdoors if the air quality was good to moderate.

On days when the air quality was poor, athletes ran in the school during practice, which Melville noted is not the same as having them run outdoors where they can practice running on hills and flat terrain similar to the courses they would run during meets.

The Broncos were scheduled to compete in the Josh Wright Memorial Invite at NWC on Sept. 5, but the race was canceled due to the poor air quality.

Melville said all of the athletes have never competed in distance running at the high school level, however most of them have experience playing sports in middle school and high school.

Melville, who coaches the team with assistant coach Tracey Korthuis, said this year is a learning experience for not only the athletes, but for herself as well.

She is focused on having the runners work hard during practice and as the season progresses, she expects to see the athletes’ times improve.

The Broncos competed in their second race of the season in Reardan on Sept. 19.