MEEKER

Meeker High School cross country joined a large field of teams at the Basalt Invitational on Saturday, held at Crown Mountain Park in El Jebel. The course is fairly flat, and is highlighted by two crossings of a creek.

Only two high school races were held, with the girls running first. Brighton Bair had a strong start and ran a smart race, to finish in 12th place out of 80 runners, in 22:25. Haylee Steele completed the 5K course in 29:46, and 70th place.

Wyatt Rollins was Meeker’s first to the finish in the boys race, and 29th place. At 20:20, he was more than three minutes faster than his performance there last year. Gabe Smithers was two places back, and at 20:34 he had also dropped his time. Aidan Tapia got his first taste of this course, running it in 21:13, for 47th place. Eddie Drussell was ten places behind, 57th at 21:53. Gage Richardson and Oliver Holmes finished in 22:35 and 22:46, for 70th and 72nd places, respectively. Dawson Richardson, a sophomore and recent addition to the team, saw his first cross country competition, and finished 104th, in 26:20. Cameron Hanberg and Remy Broussard were our final two finishers, at 28:41 and 34:44, for 113th and 117th places. The Meeker boys finished in ninth place in team scoring.

“It was good to see our performances at this meet as compared to last year. Our home course had changed, but as this one is the same, we get a better gauge of where we are. Everyone who ran here last year was at or better than last year’s times.”

Meeker will be travelling to Kremmling for the West Grand Invitational on Saturday, with the girls race starting at 10 a.m.

RANGELY

This past Saturday, Aug. 27, 2022, the Rangely Panthers cross country squad competed in the Basalt Longhorn Cross Country Invitational. The Panthers had a great start to their season in Meeker and kept the momentum going despite this meet being very different from what the Panthers saw just a week earlier.

A field of 28 runners suddenly turned into 118 for the boys cross country team. However, James Talbot likely didn’t notice the difference for very long after the gun went off. Talbot again led the Panthers with a top 10 finish, crossing the line in ninth in 19:04. Andrew Dorris was shortly across the line as well, finishing in 19:10 to claim 12th. Rounding out the scoring five members of the Rangely squad was Anthony Dorris in 35th with a time of 20:41, Kevin Wren right behind in 36th and 20:42, and Fisher Winder placing 51st in 21:25. Also competing for the boys was Justin Allred (22:59), Joseph Valez (23:25), Caiden French (23:55), Gage Nielsen (26:59), Matthew Morgan (27:47), and Colton Stevens (28:18).

Macy Morgan and Rylee Allred were the only two runners competing for the Panthers in the girls race. Morgan had another great run, taking off a minute and a half from her time in Meeker to finish in 28:44. Allred was able to compete in her first race of the season and crossed the line in 36:09.

The Panthers will travel to Colorado Springs next week to get a taste of the upcoming state course in the Cheyenne Mountain Stampede.

Special to the Herald Times