Northern harriers excited to battle for the border

The Montana State University-Northern cross country teams don’t get to run in Havre very often. In fact, it happens just once every other year. So forgive the Lights and Skylights if they’re just a little excited for the 2019 Battle of the Border against Western Wyoming.

The race, which rotates between the two programs, comes to Havre Saturday morning, when MSU-N and Western will face off in a duel meet at Prairie Farms Golf Course. Awful weather is in the forecast, but, cross country races usually go as scheduled despite cold, rain and even snow.

The Lights and Skylights come into Saturday’s meet having won the last two Battles of the Border, including back in 2017, the last time it was held in Havre. And Northern is looking strong again this fall.

At last week’s University of Providence Meet in Great Falls, the Lights took second and the Skylights finished third.

Allison Tigert led the Skylights, as she crossed the finish line in 3rd place with a time of 19:32.62. Ashley McCready-Romero crossed the line in 11th place with a time of 23:30.50, as Grace Schwenk came in at 18th place. Kaitlin Nystrom took 20th.

Field Soosloff led the Lights running at 27:09.05 taking 6th place. Amos Taiswa took 11th place with a time of 27:29.18. Luke Karnauskas took 12th, as Liam Baez-Terry took 14th. Daniel Kirwa crossed the finish line in 19th place and Kai Krumwiede took 26th.

Northern, under head coach Chad Spangler, will have its full varsity teams in Saturday’s races, and the Lights and Skylights will look to hold on to the traveling trophy for the fourth straight season.

The Battle of the Border will get underway Saturday morning at Prairie Farms Golf Course. The Lights and Skylights are halfway through the 2019 season, with meets at Lewis-Clark State and Montana Western left in the regular season. The 2019 Frontier Conference Championships will be held Nov. 8 in Billings.