Cross country teams have best outing yet

The Mountain Home girls and boys cross country teams both had one of their better outings Saturday at the Oregon Trail cross country meet in Vale, Ore.

The Mountain Home girls, led by Jessica Furst, finished third behind Vale and Union.

Furst ran the course in a season best 23:37, finishing third overall. Ally Howe finished in a time of 25:55, placing 10th. Kelci Robinson ran a 26:30, which placed her 13th.

Jessi Cameron ran a 27:09, good for 16th place. Jannica Quintal ran a 28:59, for 21st. Piper Coffin had a time of 29:47, for 24th, and Sarah Hyde ran a 32:17, which placed her 26th, two spots ahead of Courtney Ashford, who ran a 32:33, and three ahead of Cindy Blacklock, who ran a 32:37.

Mountain Home finished fourth in the boys competition, behind Union, Vale and Enterprise.

Matt Bernyk paced the Tiger boys with a time of 21:40, good for 17th place, one ahead of Charlie Blacklock, who came in at 21:42. Bret Kohring came in at number 20 with a 21:54. Nico Pinque was 23rd with a 22:07 time. Garrett Wood's time of 22:16 put him at number 25. Robert Hunter ran a 23:32 (35th), Mason Stevens came in with a 26:08 (41st) and Andrew Trayer ran a 34:24 (49th).

"I'm very pleased with the way they ran," said Tiger cross country coach Doug Root.

"The boys pushed each other and ran well as a team. The girls are improving and ran probably their best performance for the year.

"Having Jessica Furst and Jannica Quintal has really helped us out. Jessi Cameron is running very well, and Kelci Robinson has come on, so it was a good meet for us."

The Tigers travel to Emmett for a cross country meet Friday.

"That'll be our first chance to see quite a few of the 4A teams that we'll be running against," said Coach Root. "We've been going to a lot of smaller meets this year because I've got a very, very inexperienced team, so I was giving them a chance to have some success and run against some of the smaller schools in the area."

Coach Root also took the junior high cross country team to the Vale meet, and the Mountain Home girls won the junior high meet, and the boys finished second, just one point out of first.