Cross country girls place at Wood River

The Mountain Home girls cross country team fared well at the Wood River Invitational cross country meet at Elkhorn Friday.

Mountain Home finished fourth in the girls race for 3A and 4A teams, coming in behind Jerome, Twin Falls and Wood River.

Arisha Karren led the Mountain Home girls, finishing the 6,800-foot-high course in 24 minutes, 49.55 seconds -- good for seventh place.

Aerial Groene came in 13th with a time of 25:18.23. Alicia Reynolds was 23rd at 26:50.71, Myra Vasquez 26th at 27:20.36 and Shilo Clark 29th with a final time of 27:43.24.

The Mountain Home Tiger boys squad finished ninth in the 3A-4A boys race, but was sixth out of 4A schools competing.

Jake Schaefer and Andy Croft finished 18th and 19th, respectively. Schaefer ran a 19:28.37 and Croft came in with a 19:28.56.

Daniel Courtright came in 36th at 20:33.08, Steven Kreyche was 41st with 21:02.66 and Cody Ashby finished 52nd at 23:05.68.

"Our girls ran very well," said Tiger cross country coach Doug Root. "We had some people who ran one of the best races they've run all year long, and we're improving and getting stronger each meet."

The boys had a pretty good pack together this time around, "and we're getting better," the coach added. "We're not quite there yet, but we're working on it."

Mountain Home travels to Settlers Park in Meridian Friday for the Clash in the Valley. Coach Root doesn't know what to expect from the upcoming course or competition.

"There will be some 4As and 5As there. It's a smaller meet -- there won't be any JV race there," Root said, "so everybody's going to run all together. It's the first time we've run there and I think it's the first year they've run a race in the park there, so we'll have to see what the course is like. It's a new race for us."