RANGELY I In its 10th year, the Anna Banana Memorial Wildcat Invitational has become the premier event for cross country on the Western Slope of Colorado. With 425 runners representing 24 schools this event, honoring the life of Anna (Banana) Janowitz, brought together a mix of talented athletes from 2A through 5A programs.
On the fast and flat course, the boys’ race was led by a group of runners from the Grand Junction area and at the one mile mark William Scoggins was in 13th place, eight seconds behind, but not for long. He picked up his pace for the second mile and methodically worked his way to the front of the pack and took the lead position at the two mile mark when he moved pass Fruita’s Chuck Bisbee. He extended his lead from there and went on to win the race in a time of 16:03 giving him a new personal best.
With strong performances as well, Chris Hogan, Mitchell Webber and Daniel Connor set personal bests in their races. Hogan took over a minute off his best time to finish in 56th place with a time of 18:04, Webber took nearly 30 seconds off his best performance as he placed 109th with a time of 19:33, and Connor finished in a dead sprint to earn a season best 23:55.
The Panthers also saw some new faces including Kaycee Freeman, Andrew Morton and Marshal Way who completed their first race of the year. Freeman, who transferred in this year, went out of little fast and still finished the race in a time of 21:06. Morton and Way, who just wrapped up their golf season, finished in 22:22 and 22:00, respectively.
The Panthers will be in Aspen this weekend.