Girls team one point away from second win

The Mountain Home girls cross country team finished a close third at last Friday's cross country meet at Salmon. Teton and Idaho Falls tied for first with 52 points, Mountain Home was a point behind with 53. There were seven teams entered in the meet.

Haley Schaefer led Mountain Home, finishing fifth with a time of 21:41. Alycia Crandall came in seventh, at 21:55. Jordan Vivier was eighth, at 22:59, Kacee Cameron was 11th, with a time of 23:35. Ashley Mayberry finished 22nd, with 25:31, and Jessi Cameron came in 26th, at 27:06.

Tiger cross country coach Doug Root was pleased with his girls' efforts at the meet.

"The girls ran very well. After a long ride, and we just got there about 15 minutes before race time, they didn't have much time to stretch out, but they performed really well.

"Idaho Falls and Teton both had very good girls teams and they aced us out by a point, but everybody was pleased with their run."

Joe Gutierrez came in 19th to lead the Tiger boys, who finished seventh in the meet. His time was 19:26.

Colby Hall ran a 20:30, placing 27th, right ahead of Dylan Johnson, who had a time of 20:31. Taylor Croft finished 30th with 20:50, Chris Austin was 32nd with 21:03, and Stephen Bush was 39th, with a time of 22:56.

"We left Garrett (Wood) at home, and Gavin (Cline) was injured and not running and Robby Pack had a soccer game he had to attend, so the boys ran rather short-manned," said Root.

"They ran very well. Petr Kucem, who is our new foreign exchange student, ran very well and ran the second fastest time for us on the course, so he's earned himself a varsity position this next week."

In the JV girls race, McKenzie Dorr placed seventh with a time of 26;17, Ashley Sasaki was 15th, at 28:07, and Jennica Quintal 19th with a time of 30:24.

In the J.V. boys race, Petr Kucem competed in his first race, running a 20:25, good for 12th, James Simon ran a 21:50, 20th, and Nick McClaine was 32nd, with a 31:07.

The Tigers go to the Gary Ward Invitational in Nampa this Thursday. Coach Root expects a good meet.

"Gary Ward was the cross country coach at Vallivue for many years. We'll see all our league schools again, which will be a good preview of the district meet. There'll also be a few of the 5A schools there, so it'll be very, very tough competition."