Cross country squad competes at Kuna invitational

Both the Mountain Home girls and boys cross country teams recorded some good efforts at the Gibb Floyd Invitational cross country meet in Kuna Thursday.

Rocky Mountain won the meet, Kuna was second, Skyview third, Mountain View fourth, New Plymouth fifth, Mountain Home sixth and Vale seventh.

For Mountain Home, Jake Schaefer broke the 18-minute barrier in the boys race, running in 17 minutes, 42.91 seconds -- good enough for 29th. Andy Croft came in 36th with a time of 18:04.37. Daniel Courtright was 53rd (18:38:81), Steven Kreyche finished in a time of 18:54.97 and David Catts ran a 19:26.31.

John Goodell finished 98th (19:48.59), Nolan Pasqualetti 105th (20:11.59), Riley Urquidi 107th (20:15.69), Bill King 110th (20:21.12) and Andrew Turner 133rd (23:24.84).

Rocky Mountain won the girls competition, Skyview was second, New Plymouth third, Mountain View fourth, Kuna fifth, Mountain Home sixth, Vale seventh and McCall-Donnelly eighth.

Aerial Groene led the Mountain Home girls, running with a time of 21 minutes, 48.12 seconds, which was good for 26th. Arisha Karren was 31st, also running under 22 minutes, posting a 21:56.62. Myra Vasquez finished 42nd (22:31.90), Shilo Clark 45th (22:48.09) and Natalie Logue finished 50th (23:00.09). Tracey Gordon finished 71st (23:58.53), and Erika Cook once again set a new personal record, running a 24:35.78, good enough for 80th.

"The girls ran well," said Tiger cross country coach Doug Root of their efforts at the Kuna meet. "And the boys, almost everybody ran a PR again this week. We had a lot of season PRs and even some lifetime PRs, so that was good."

Mountain Home will host the District III 4A Cross Country Meet this Thursday at Desert Canyon Golf Course.

"One half of the teams qualify for state, so the top five teams will qualify, and one half of the individuals, so the top 21 individuals go to state," the Mountain Home coach said. "Our girls are still seeded seventh in the conference, but we can put five girls ahead of everybody but the top three teams' five girls, so we've just got to get our middle girls up a few places and we should be in pretty good shape.

Individually, Aerial Groene and Arisha Karren both have a shot in the girls to make it to state, the coach added. Meanwhile, Jake Schaefer and Andy Croft "both have a good shot at making it to state in the boys'," he said.