On Saturday the Barone Middle School cross country team, along with the high school team, traveled to Craig for their races. This week’s course was 2.2 miles, slightly longer than last week’s 1.9 mile race. Most athletes ran faster.
The girls ran first and Skylar Grimes had a good showing, finishing 20th out of a field of 32 runners. The middle school boys ran next in a field of 40 runners. Ashton Tapia finished 10th overall with a time of 14 minutes 46.6 seconds. Not far behind were his fellow teammates, Dexter Chinn (15:29.4) in 15th and Brad Nielsen (15:31.0) in 17th place. Next to follow was Jonan VonRoenn in 25th place with a time of 17:01.2; Hoyt Garcia finished 34th and Lucas Robinson was 39th.
This Saturday the Cowboys host the final meet of the season at Barone Middle School. The race will begin and end at the middle school practice field and will be roughly 2 miles long. The boys’ race will be first at 10 a.m. and the girls’ race will follow.
Head coach Kris Casey “…welcomes all that are curious about this sport to come out and support these runners, they have been working incredibly hard all season.”
Meeker Cross Country traveled to Craig on Saturday. Moffat County hosted 13 middle and high schools at Loudy Simpson Park for their Invitational. “We had great conditions for racing, and saw many improvements,” said head coach Marty Casey.
The girls raced first for high school, with senior Brighton Bair finishing in seventh place, at 22:31. Freshman Haylee Steele ran the course in 31:19 for 53rd place.
Wyatt Rollins continues to lead the boys’ team, and broke under the 20 minute mark for the first time this year, with a 23rd place finish of 19:34. Gabe Smithers also had his fastest time this season of 20:27, for 31st place. Gage Richardson finished 39th, at 21:15, also his best of the year. Aidan Tapia, a freshman and consistent scorer for Meeker, ran in 21:42 for 47th place. Meeker’s fifth- and sixth-grade runners were Dawson Richardson and Cameron Hanberg, both of whom set new personal records (PRs) this week. They finished in 70th and 73rd places, at 25:45 and 26:17 respectively. “We were missing three of our boys this week, but Meeker still finished seventh in team scoring,” Casey said.
The Cowboys will be running at Confluence Park in Delta on Friday, a course known for fast times and PRs. “This is the same course we will run for regionals in October, and I am excited to see what our kids can do,” Casey said.
Races are scheduled to begin with the varsity girls at 10 a.m.
Special to the Herald Times
