Cross country team just misses trip to state

Wednesday, October 27, 2004

The Mountain Home Tigers came up short in their quest of finishing in the top four at the District III 4A Cross Country Meet at Eagle Island State Park last Friday. The top four teams qualify for this week's State 4A Cross Country Meet in Soda Springs. Mountain Home finished fifth in the boys competition.

Nampa ran away with the meet, finishing with 36 points. Vallivue and Bishop Kelly battled it out for second, with Vallivue finishing second with 50 points, Bishop Kelly had 53. Caldwell was a distant fourth with 120 points. Mountain Home was next with 162, besting Emmett, 165, Kuna, 174, and Skyview, 186.

"We came in fifth, which was better than we thought we'd do," said Tiger cross country coach Doug Root. "Going into the meet, we felt we had to beat the teams in blue, and we beat Emmett, but Caldwell finished ahead of us, and they were really the team we were trying to get. If we had beaten Caldwell, we would have qualified for state, but we just fell a little bit short."

Mountain Home did have one runner qualify individually, as Brandon Sloan finished seventh with his best time of the year, 17:07.16.

"Brandon ran an outstanding race: 17:07, which placed him seventh in the District, and we're very, very pleased with that!" said Coach Root. "Scott Riley just barely missed qualifying.

He ran a 17:59, a new personal best for him, as he finally broke the 18-minute barrier."

Tim Whitmarsh ran a 18:23.58, which bested his previous best time by nearly 80 seconds.

Lawrence Johnson also cracked the 19-minute barrier, shaving nearly a minute off his previous best with an 18:30.56. Melvin Snyder beat his previous best by 75 seconds, finishing in 20:06.88. Victor Werner also set a new personal best by nearly a minute, with his 21:27.34.

Coach Root indicated the Soda Springs course has, "lots of hills, with one called 'heartbreak hill,' which, from what I understand, is a pretty good-sized hill."

Root is optimistic that Brandon Sloan will be able to be competitive at the state meet.

The State 4A Cross Country Meet is Friday in Soda Springs.

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