Tiger cross country team finishes 4th for girls at Kleinkopf Invitational

The Mountain Home Tigers overcame less than desirable weather at Twin Falls last Wednesday, running well at the Kleinkopf Invitational cross country meet.

Mountain Home finished fourth out of 17 varsity girls teams that competed. Hillcrest won the girls race with 57 points, Twin Falls was second with 62, Highland of Pocatello was next with 85 points and Mountain Home was fourth with 127.

Jordan Vivier led the Mountain Home girls, running the race in 21:04.25, the ninth-best runner. Kacee Cameron's 21:56.66 was a new personal best, which placed her 21st. Haley Schaefer came in 25th (22:19.47), Shelby McHugh was 35th (22:51.12), McKenzie Dorr was 48th, with a new PR (23:30.29), and Jennica Quintal had her best time of the year (24:44.77) with her 71st-place finish.

Starley Dodge ran in the JV girls race and set a new personal best time of 29:10.60 with her 49th-place effort.

Mountain Home came in eighth in the boys varsity race, which had 19 schools competing. Twin Falls won the boys varsity race with 56 points. Hillcrest was second with 82 points, Highland of Pocatello was third with 86, followed by Wood River with 119, Jerome with 148, Kimberly had 170 points, Skyview179 and Mountain Home 226.

Joe Gutierrez led Mountain Home, finishing 32nd in a time of 18:16.61. Jovanne Carrizales was 36th (18:24.96), Dylan Johnson 38th (18:31.33), Gavin Cline 58th, with a new PR (19:11.08), Jon Dodge finished 67th and bested his pervious PR with a 19:35.43. Ruben Gaytan was 75th (19:54.37), his time also a new PR, and Taylor Croft came in 91st (20:11.50).

The Tigers JV squad finished fourth out of 13 teams running in the JV race. Highland won the JV race with 33 points, Hillcrest was second with 44, Jerome was third with 76 and Mountain Home had 157.

Aaron Menhart led the Tiger JV boys with a 28th-place finish, running a 21:20.78, just ahead of Tim Sieber (21:21.68). James McGovern was close by, finishing 31st (21:27.34), with a new PR.

Perry Savage also ran his best time (21:36.40) with his 39th-place effort. Daniel Courtright came in 60th (22:30.10) and Doug Watkins placed 87th (23:49.90).

"The kids all ran really well, despite the cold, windy weather they had to run in," said Tiger cross country coach Doug Root.

The Tigers go to Kuna on Friday to run in the Gibb Floyd Classic.