Cross country opens strong

Last Friday, the Bobcat Cross Country season kicked off with the Kelly Walsh Beartrap meet at Casper Mountain. Coach Stephanie Metz said the Varsity girls had huge improvements, dropping multiple minutes from their previous times and staying strong through the whole race. Tahja Hunt finished 11th with a time of 22:17.34, McKenna Bomengen finished 17th with 22:54.97 and Olivia Weyer finished 44th with 24:53.53.

As for the JV team, Metz noted Hallie Martinez’s 20th place finish with a time of 27:08.23. Martinez, she said, will likely be running Varsity following the meet in Billings, Mont.

Metz added there were two girls who didn’t get to compete at Casper as they didn’t have their nine practices in, but they will compete in Billings, so after that meet there will be five or more Varsity girls running.

“Everyone’s time was amazing considering the altitude, difference in the hills and the temperature.”

Also running JV was Karsten Hart, who had a finishing time of 37:49.82

As for middle school, Metz said they were phenomenal, as the boys — Jesse Rodriguez and Kanyon Gerber — both ran better than they had previously, and Rodriguez’s fifth place time of 16:03.30 was also a personal record. Gerber finished 13th with a time of 17:01.72

The middle school girls “rocked it out of the park,” Metz said, taking three of the top 10 spots. Dazlyn Hunt finished first with 14:30.47; Jayda Griffin fourth with 15:40.19; and Elizabeth Peterson 10th with 17:52.56. On top of that, the coach pointed out Hunt and Griffin were the top two seventh graders at the meet.

We have a big team this year that has worked hard, Metz said, and she expects it to be a really good season.