McMurtrey, Hartnett shine at Helena city cross country meet; Helena High sweeps

HELENA – One year after having a decade’s worth of wins in the city cross country meet snapped, the Helena High girls are back on top again.

Kylie Hartnett paced the Bengals to an easy win on Wednesday at Bill Roberts Golf Course, as Helena High finished with the top four runners in the race. Hartnett, only a freshman, clocked a time of 19 minutes, 21 seconds to win the city title by more than 40 seconds.

“It was more mentally hard to push myself to break 19 minutes again,” Hartnett said, less than a week after placing fourth at the Capital City 7-of-7 Invite. “I’m not sure if I did (break 19 minutes) because I had nobody pushing me. It was really kind of hard not having somebody there.”

Hartnett was a top-10 finisher at the Mountain West Classic in Missoula two Saturdays back, before crossing No. 4 in last Thursday’s race on the same Bill Roberts course, so she’s no stranger to competition. Running out front on her own, however, was an adjustment.

“I’m sure I’ll get used to it, but this was my first time not having somebody there. It’s going to take a little bit to get used to that,” she said.

Hartnett and Helena High nearly completed a perfect score, taking the top four spots. Each team’s top-five finishers counted toward the team scores.

Jasmine Wilkerson (20:03), Rylie Schoenfeld (20:07) and Kylee Wetzel (20:27) placed second through fourth, respectively. Katelyn McKay (21:09) finished in sixth to lead Helena High to 16 team points. Capital finished with 51.

“That’s exciting. We worked really hard these past couple weeks to make sure we won back the title,” Hartnett said, after Capital snapped the Bengals’ 10-year win streak in the crosstown rivalry last fall.

The Bruins were led by Emma Rohrer-Fitzhugh, who paced Capital with a time of 20:35 and a fifth-place finish. Zoey Wall (21:36) and Willa Mcardle (21:42) earned top-10 finishes for the Bruins.

The boys race was a closer affair, both individually and in the team standings, but Helena High upped its streak to 18 consecutive victories over the Bruins.

Despite the team finish, Helena Capital saw senior Jesse McMurtrey race to the No. 1 spot, defeating Helena High rival Jonah Fisher by 10 seconds. McMurtrey finished in 16:49, Fisher 16:59.

“I took the lead on the second lap, about halfway through,” McMurtrey said of the tight race between the Bruin and Bengal stars. “I saw his arms were a little bit stiff, so I was just doing my best to stay behind him and when I needed to go, I decided to take off when I felt good.”

McMurtrey saved his best for last, sprinting away from Fisher in the home stretch of the race, riding the cheers from the Bruins’ fans.

“In the end I was just trying to finish really strong, give it everything I got, because I knew he was right behind me. I didn’t want to lose the lead at that point,” he said.

Like the girls, the Helena boys placed four runners in the top five Wednesday, led by Fisher. Trystan Brewer (17:09), Clayton Ryerson (17:11) and Zane Roush (17:13) placed third, fourth and fifth, respectively. Sam Sullivan (17:51) was eighth to total 22 team points for the Bengals.

McMurtrey’s win, along with Peter Lund’s (17:23) sixth-place finish, Carlin Onstad’s (17:46) seventh-place finish and ninth- and 10th-place efforts from Travis Peterson (18:00) and Danny Leas (18:05) gave Capital 33 points in the team standings.

Helena’s harriers join the rest of the runners in Montana at University of Montana Golf Course next Saturday, Oct. 20 for the state meet.

Results from Wednesday’s city meet can be found below.