Cross country team's season begins

The Mountain Home Tiger cross country squad opened their season last week, running at Middleton and Caldwell.

The Tigers ran in the five-team Middleton Invitational last Tuesday, finishing fifth in the boys competition. Brandon Sloan and Daniel Kaiser were the Tigers' top two runners at the meet, Sloan finishing 10th, and Kaiser, 31st.

Mountain Home ran at the Caldwell Invitational last Friday. That meet was a much bigger meet, with stiffer competition. Brandon Sloan again led the Tigers, finishing 40th. Daniel Kaiser came in 68th, followed by Lee Pierce, 71st, Nate Bundy, 72nd, and Scott Riley, 73rd.

Mountain Home's lone girl runner, Bethany Glidden, finished 60th in the girls race.

"This is her first year, so she did all right," said Mountain Home cross country coach James Gilbert, who was also pleased with the rest of his runners first efforts of the season.

"Brandon (Sloan) ran just awesome in Middleton. That was the best race I've seen him run, so that should give him a lot of confidence going into this year. His time was a little slower in Caldwell, and he came back fairly well for only having basically two days between races.

"The kids were tired, but I am really happy with how they did. It'll be nice to see what happens in Emmett, to get an idea of where we're at. Alvaro (Salas) and Tim Whitmarsh will both be eligible this next week, so that's going to help us out a lot."

The Tiger harriers run Friday at the Payette River Invitational in Emmett.