Meeker
The Meeker Cowboys cross country team competed in Delta’s Pantherfest meet on Friday. Informally known as the “Delta Speedway,” the course at Confluence Park is about as flat and fast as the team will see. The weather this year was not entirely cooperative, but the cool temperatures and excellent competition helped Meeker’s racers to post some great times. All Cowboy racers on Friday set new career personal records (PR).
The boys’ varsity race was the first competition of the day. Wyatt Rollins ran an excellent race, with a 22nd place finish and his first sub-19 time of 18:32. Gabe Smithers finished in 47th place, with a new PR of 19:45. Nearly breaking into the 19s was Aidan Tapia, at 20:06 and 54th. Oliver Holmes knocked more than thirty seconds off of his previous best time, finishing 92nd in 22:10. Cameron Hanberg continues his improvements this season, in at 24:26 and 105th place.
Haylee Steele overcame the rain and hail during her race, and earned Coach Marty Casey’s pick for toughest racer this past week. Despite the conditions, she had her best race thus far, with a 15th place finish in the JV race, at 26:01.
“Everyone ran hard, and ran well. We have some time before returning to Confluence Park in a few weeks for regionals, but will be in Aspen on Saturday morning for the Chris Severy Invitational,” Casey said. The girls will race first, starting at 10:15 a.m.
Rangely
Despite having to hit the road for a couple of hours, the Rangely Panther cross country teams must have been feeling a little bit at home when they finally lined up to race in Delta’s 2022 “Pantherfest.” A famously fast 3.1-mile course around Confluence Park is all the Panthers needed to keep improving on the season and setting personal records. Rain and hail simply would not hold the runners back on this day.
Macy Morgan and Rylee Allred got out hard in the girls varsity race to start the day for the Panthers. What the two of them would achieve set the tone for the rest of the Rangely squad. Macy Morgan, who took nearly a minute and a half off of her previous personal best time last weekend, decided it’d be fun to go ahead and cut another 83 seconds and set a new personal record. Morgan finished in 25:30. Rylee Allred took a look at Morgan’s action and raised it. Allred ran a 30:07, which is three minutes faster than she has run this season.
James Talbot and Andrew Dorris stood shoulder to shoulder at the line of the boys varsity race to lead their fellow teammates through a field of 111 other runners. Talbot didn’t hold back on the muddying course, racing his way to a second place finish. Talbot broke 17-minutes for the first time in his career and set a 25 second personal best of 16:56. Dorris held tough in a sprint to the finish line that landed himself in the top-10. Dorris finished in 8th, with only 1.1 seconds between 7th and 10th place, in a time of 17:41. This is a 40 second season best for Dorris as he continues to get stronger and healthier after a broken ankle this summer.
Kevin Wren, Anthony Dorris, and Fisher Winder rounded out the scoring for the varsity boys, finishing in 46th, 50th, and 60th, respectively. Wren ran a season best of 15 seconds as he crossed the line in 19:43. Anthony Dorris was just off of his season best as he finished in 19:58. Winder ran a career personal record of 20:24, a new best of 16 seconds. Justin Allred was Rangely’s next runner, finishing just 10 places back in 70th. Allred had a spectacular performance, breaking 21-minutes for the first time and setting a lifetime best by nearly 50 seconds, finishing in 20:58. Colton Stevens rounded out the varsity squad with a 23:33, only seconds off of his personal best time.
“Our varsity teams really set the bar high,” said coach Beth Scoggins. “All of them just really went for it and it was so much fun to watch. Macy is improving at such an incredible rate right now that it’s hard to believe, but she’s really been putting the work in and it’s paying off. James is becoming more and more confident as a runner and starting to figure out racing at a high level. Our boys team is just really doing a great job of competing and working together. I’m so proud of everyone today.”
The boys junior varsity team picked up right where the varsity teams left off: running hard and making huge improvements. Logan Peterson led the group of freshmen with a huge personal best. Peterson finished fourth in the race and took off just shy of two minutes from his best time when he crossed the line in 21:25. Gage Nielsen was next across the finish line in 24:57, taking 72 seconds off of his career best. Matthew Morgan finished next for the young Panthers as he completed the course in 28:05, just off of a personal best for him as well.
“It was really great to see our young guys keep the ball rolling. All of them ran really well, especially with the rain and hail continuing to come down. Logan ran a great race and I hope it’s a big confidence booster, showing him that he can run with our top guys,” said coach Scoggins.
The Panthers will have a big change of pace next week when they hit the ski slopes of Aspen for the Chris Severy Invitational. The team is looking forward to getting a tough, grueling race under their belts on one of the toughest courses in the state before they begin locking in on the postseason.
Special to the Herald Times
