School's cross country squad debuts at Firth

The Mountain Home Tigers cross country team will travel to Firth on Saturday to open its cross country season.

Tiger cross country coach Doug Root is pleased with the turnout he has for cross country this year.

"We've got 33 kids right now -- the best ever. We've got 14 girls and the rest are boys, so that gives us a full girls varsity and JV this year and a full boys varsity and JV this year, with some extras."

Coach Root returns a lot from last year's girls squad that finished fifth at the state meet.

"The girls look very good. We were fifth in state the last two years, and we should be that high if not higher again this year, but the 4A only lost four seniors out of the top 25 runners at state last year, so everybody's still pretty strong."

Coach Root sees his boys squad short on experience, but hopes for the best out of them.

"In the boys, we basically only have one top varsity runner coming back and that's Dylan Johnson, who was our number one runner last year. We lost one to football and a couple others moved, so we're rebuilding with the boys, but I think we're going to be okay. We had a lot of kids work hard all summer long to get there."

Coach Root believes once again their main competition in the district will come from Bishop Kelly High School.

"In the girls, BK. In the boys, BK. Kuna's probably second on the boys. I think we're probably second in the girls. If everybody runs like we hope they can and they work hard, we can hopefully challenge them (Bishop Kelly), but they're very, very tough. They already have five kids who are going under 20 (minutes) in the girls. Defending state champions, defending Nike regional champions -- they're tough."

The Mountain Home coach will take his runners to Firth this Saturday for the Mud Run where he expects to have some fun.

"The Mud Run this year is a jamboree, not an actual event, and they've shortened it from 5,000 meters to 3,000 meters, so we're going to take everybody down there -- it counts as a practice -- and just have a good time."

The Tigers first actual meet will be Sept. 2 at New Plymouth.