By Bill Foley

It’s another fall sports season and another fall sport for Sean Staples.

Staples, who was the kicker for Butte High’s football team for two seasons before moving to soccer last year, is running cross country for the Bulldogs this season.

Friday afternoon, the Butte High senior showed that his latest move was a pretty good call.

Staples cruised to victory in the Butte High intra-squad race, which ran in conjunction with the Butte Athletic Council’s barbecue and the Purple and White Scrimmages on the Butte High campus.

He won the 3-mile race in 16 minutes, 55 seconds. That came on a hilly course and on some tired legs, too.

Butte High coach Guy Wadas said Staples’ success Friday was no accident.

“He’s worked hard,” the coach said. “At this part he is probably done the most work of any boy I’ve ever coached. He’s focused.”

Fellow senior Kyle Konda placed second for the Bulldogs at 18:30. Junior Erik Casagranda placed third at 19:01, followed by freshman Sean Foley at 20:38. Sophomore Kasey Krzan also broke the 21-minute mare with a time of 20:45.

Wadas said sophomore Jake Vetter, who missed the race because of a family vacation, will also be a runner to watch.

On the girls’ side, senior Joby Rosenleaf won with a time of 18:08. That put her at second place overall in the race.

Wadas said Rosenleaf is a runner teammates can look to for inspiration.

“She’s a good role model,” he said. “She walks the walk. I see good things happening for her this fall.”

Aubree Corcoran placed second in the girls’ race in 21:15. She won’t be able to run for the Bulldogs this season, however, because she is just going into the eighth grade.

Senior Caty Carmody was next at 22:15, followed by junior Rosie Real at 22:18 and freshman Katelyn Rapp at 23:04.

“They ran well,” Wadas of his team. “They’re running on tired legs. We ran their butts of this week.”

The coach said he has about 30 runners out for the team.

“We’ve got a lot of young kids, and we’ve got a lot of new kids to the team,” Wadas said. “I think the cool thing about our team is we’ve got a lot of athletes who compete in more than one sport.”

The Bulldogs will race for real Aug. 30 at the Butte Central Invitational at Fairmont Hot Springs.

Varsity results
Boys
Sean Staples               16:55
Kyle Konda                 18:30
Erik Casagranda         19:01
Sean Foley                  20:38
Kasey Krzan               20:45
Brok Martin                21:03
Clint Connors             22:36
Garrett Miller             22:41
Ryan Moore                24:25
Tyler Warnes              24:40
Sam Byrnes                26:12
Ethan Edwards            26:13

Girls
Joby Rosenleaf           18:08
Aubree Corcoran        21:15*
Cati Carmody             22:15
Rosie Real                  22:18
Katelyn Rapp              23:04
Danika Murphy          24:38
Gabby Haberman        24:40
Taylor Huff                 25:14
Sheridan Hafer           25:19
Cynthia Trudgeon       24:25
Emily Vincent            24:34
Brianna Cunneen        24:39
Madeline Staples        28:21
Amber Freebourn       29:31
Jaile Maloughney       29:43
Haley Mellott             30:37