Coach likes cross-country effort

All things considered, Mountain Home Tiger cross country coach Doug Root was pleased with his team's effort at its first meet of the season last Thursday at Caldwell.

"The kids ran pretty well. It was a much larger meet than I thought it would be. There were 19 teams there, including all of the 4A and 5A schools from the valley.

"Brandon Sloan was in the middle of the pack. He ran a 18:01, which is a pretty good time this early in the season. He was our state qualifier last year, and right now he's about 50 seconds off where he ran at the end of the last year, so he's looking good.

"Scott Riley, our other senior, captain of the team, ran a 19:09, which was right up there. He was on Brandon's heels."

Tim Whitmarsh came in at 21:47, Victor Werner ran a 22:43, Nico Pinque was next at 23:50, and Wes Haws ran a 30:21.

In the girls race, Kelcie Robinson led Mountain Home with a time of 26:30. Jessie Cameron was next with a 27:03, followed by Ariel Strasser, 34:11, Piper Coffin, 37:03, Courtney Ashford, 37:33, and Sarah Hyde, 38:33.

"I was really pleased with a new freshman that just transferred in," said Coach Root. "Jessie Cameron ran extremely well for a young freshman in the girls race, and things are starting to look up. We're starting to get some miles under our belt right now and getting in a little bit better shape."

Coach Root indicated the team will be going to two meets this week.

"We're going to Wood River on Thursday at the Wood River Gun Club. That should be a hilly course with altitude, and I'm really looking forward to that, and then something I'd like to get started as an annual tradition, we're taking our junior high team with us and going to go to Vale and run the Oregon Trail Invitational on Saturday at Vale, Ore.

"They're going to run a new course this year at the Bully Creek Reservoir, and I don't know what that's going to be like, but we're really trying to incorporate our junior high with our high school team this year in an effort to build our cross country program for the future."