Butte High cross country siblings Sophia and Camden Houchin are this week’s Leskovar Honda Athletes of the Week.

The honors come after the two posted impressive showings at the MHSA 61st State Cross Country Championships Saturday at the University of Montana Golf Course in Missoula.

Sophia, an eighth grader, had the highest placing by a Butte High girl since Hailey Nielson finished 22nd in 2020. Sophia placed 40th in the Class AA girls’ division with a time of 20 minutes, 24 seconds.

Camden, a junior, placed 21st in the boys’ Class AA group with a time of 16:31. That is the highest placing by a Bulldog boy since Josh Panasuk took seventh in 2011.

For Camden, that capped a great season in which broke and rebroke what is believed to be his own school 5 kilometer record. He ran 16:45 at State last year to break the record of 16:46 set by Jake Vetter in 2018. He lowered that mark to 16:18 at the 7 on 7 meet in Helena earlier this month. The distance was changed from 3 miles to 5K in 2017.

While they didn’t take home a team trophy, the rest of the Bulldogs ran well at State, too. Many posted personal (PR) or season records (SR). The Bulldog boys ran their fastest average time since 2017, while the girls ran their fastest average time since 2018.

Times for each Bulldog runner are listed below. (Click here for complete results)

Leskovar Honda, home of the 20-year, 200,000-mile warranty, is teaming up with the ButteCast to honor the finest student-athletes from the Mining City in an effort to encourage more children to get up, get out and try all kinds of sports and activities.

Boys (16th place)
Camden Houchin, Jr. — 16:31, 21st
Levi Wiltse, Jr. — 17:44, 76th
Lincoln Zell, Jr. — 18:08, 86th
Ryan Hanson, Jr. — 18:49, 100th
Charles Killebrew, Jr. — 19:20, 106th
Isaac Zell, Fr. — 19:33, 107th
Nathan Stone, Jr. — 19:41 (SR), 109th

Girls (15th Place)
Sophia Houchin, 8th — 20:24 (PR), 40th
Penelope Luebke, Fr. — 21:50, 75th
Eve Smith, Fr. — 22:19, 85th
Kellie Jo Carpenter, Jr. — 23:32 (PR), 98th
Adelaide Thomson, Fr. — 23:35 (PR), 99th
Alaina Grochowski, So. — 25:17 (PR), 108th
Caitlynn Gross, So. — 29:05 110th