Tonasket senior Matt Gschiel running by himself at the Oroville Invitational on Saturday, Oct. 16. Gschiel finished the race in ninth place, his best race of the season so far. Submitted by Bob Thornton

OROVILLE – The Tonasket Tigers’ cross country team finished their regular season at the Oroville Invitational on Saturday, Oct. 16.

The highest finisher for the boys was junior Damon Halvorsen in second place with a time of 17:01, followed by junior Jake Hickman in fifth place at 17:31, senior Matt Gschiel in ninth place at 17:46 and senior Enrique Ortega in 28th place at 20:22.

“The boys finished the regular season strong with three placing in the top ten at the Oroville Invitational,” Bob Thornton, head coach, said. “Halvorsen led the boys with a second place finish, followed closely by Hickman in fifth place and Gschiel in ninth place. Gschiel ran his best race of the season thus far. Ortega continues to show improvement finishing 28th out of 48 runners.”

The only runner for the girls’ team was junior Kyndra Dellinger, who finished the race in fifth place with a time of 21:52.

“Sole runner for the girls on Saturday, Dellinger ran a tremendous race, improving her three mile time by 23 seconds to earn a fifth place ribbon,” Thornton said.

The middle school team had two boys finish the 1.5 mile race: eighth grader Adam Halvorsen, who finished in third place with a time of 10:02, and seventh grader Logan Wahl, who finished in sixth place with a time of 10:56.

“Middle school boys Halvorsen and Wahl showed the future for Tonasket cross country is bright by running two of their best races, finishing third and sixth respectively, in their final meet of the season,” Thornton said.

The Tigers will next compete at the Caribou Trail League Championships, head at the Omak Golf Course on Thursday, Oct. 21 with the girls’ race beginning at 3:30 p.m. and the boys’ race beginning at 4:05 p.m.