RANGELY I On Oct. 15, the Rangely High School cross-country Panthers participated in their last regular season meet of the year, featuring 268 athletes.
The Rifle Bears hosted the meet at the Rifle Creek Golf Club with approximately 12 teams: 147 boys and 121 girls representing those squads.
The varsity girls started off the meet, but since the Rangely team only had three girls competing, they were not able to place as a team.
Junior Savannah Nielsen led the team with a time of 22:43, good enough to finished 29th out of the 121 girls.
Freshman Phalon Osborn finished 40th with a time of 23:36, which is a personal best for her, and sophomore Miekka Peck also ran to personal best with a time of 31:10, placing 109th.
Coach Beth Scoggins said, “All the girls are making huge improvements in their times, and, what’s great, is that we are a young team and our future looks bright.”
The Panther varsity boys race started out fast and furious, as each of them took off quickly and had a quick corner with all of them still bunched together.
Patrick Scoggins was the first one out of the chute and didn’t look back as he took first place overall with a time of 17:33.
Brennan Noyes had a good race with a new personal best time of 20:37, good for a 60th-place finish. Austin Ficken, also turned in a new personal best with a time of 22:04 and placing 104th.
Landon Rowley, a junior, made his varsity debut at this meet with a time of 25:59, placing 134th, and Cameron Filfred was right behind him in 136th place and a time of 26:22.
“The boys are a young team also, and we have a bright future if they are willing to work at it,” Scoggins said.
The team’s next meet will be held Friday in Delta as the regional track meet. This meet determines which individuals will make it to compete at the state track meet.
The first 15 across the line will be running for one more week at the state meet, which will be held in Colorado Springs.
“I have high hopes of taking several athletes, but we will see how well we run on Friday,” Scoggins said.
