Girls cross-country team wins meet

The Mountain Home Tiger girls cross country team won the Roger Curran Invitational cross country meet at Nampa on Saturday.

With Haley Schaefer coming in first, Alycia Crandall, second, and Jordan Vivier, fourth, Mountain Home came in first in the girls competition.

"They ran very, very well!" said a happy Tiger cross country coach Doug Root.

"Haley Shaefer led the race the whole way, Alycia Crandall stepped up about halfway through and took over second place, and Jordan (Vivier) really pressed the girl for the third place position, so the girls ran very, very well!"

Mountain Home won the girls competition, Skyview was second and Nampa was third.

Haley Schaefer won the race with a time of 21:21. Alycia Crandall ran a 21:44 to finish second. Jordan Vivier ran a 22:54, which placed her fourth.

Kacee Cameron set a new personal record of 24:34, Jessi Cameron ran a 25:09, Ashley Mayberry stepped up from the J.V. and ran a 25:11, and Tiana Svetkovich ran a 26:42.

McKenzie Dorr set a new personal best for her at the Nampa meet, running a 25:58, and Ashley Sasaki also set a new personal best for her in the J.V. meet, running a 27:22.

Mountain Home finished behind Skyview in the boys competition, and ahead of Nampa.

"On the boys side, we were missing three of our top seven runners, but our JV kids stepped up and filled in very, very well and ran outstanding times," said Coach Root.

Dylan Johnson led the Tiger boys with a time of 19:15, Garrett Wood ran a 19:40, Robby Pack came in with a 19:52, Colby Hall ran a new personal best of 20:10, James Simon came in with a 20:49, Taylor Croft moved up from the JV and ran a personal best 20:56, and Andrew Martin moved up from the JV and ran a 21:21.

Stephen Bush led the JV boys at the Nampa meet, running a 21:21, his personal best. Chris Austin also set a new personal best with a 21:27. Aaron Menheart set a personal best with a 25:17, and Nick McClaine came in with a 29:44.

The Tigers will be at the Tiger-Griz Invitational in Idaho Falls Saturday morning.

Coach Root looks forward to seeing how they do against the 4A teams in the eastern part of the state.

"We need the competition against some of the eastern schools, and this will give us a chance to see what they have. Right now, from the times that I've looked at in the paper and on the Internet, our girls are very competitive in the 4A rankings, and I just want to see what the other parts of the state have."

The Tigers also ran at the Caldwell Twilight Invitational Thursday evening in Caldwell, where the girls came in seventh, and the boys, 11th against some stiff competition.

Bishop Kelly took first in the girls competition at Caldwell with 37 points. Kuna was second with 87, followed by Boise 93, Centennial 95, Timberline 153, Capital 160, Mountain Home 189, Meridian 191, Emmett 216, Middleton 218 and Borah 227.

Haley Schaefer led the Mountain Home girls with a 21:16, which placed her 12th.

Alycia Crandall's time of 21:52 placed her 22nd. Jordan Vivier set a new personal best at the Caldwell meet, running a 22:08. Jessi Cameron ran a 25:00, Ashley Mayberry set a new personal best with a 25:03, Kacee Cameron came in at 25:06, and Jennica Quintal came in with a 25:57.

In the JV meet at Caldwell, McKenzie Dorr ran a 26:58, Ashley Sasaki ran a 27:43, and Tiana Svetkovich ran a 28:40.

Boise won the boys competition with 32 points, Bishop Kelly was second with 89. Columbia was third with 103, followed by Capital,165, Kuna 173, Centennial 178, Meridian 186, Timberline 195, Rocky Mountain 208, Borah 216, Mountain Home 256, Middleton 293, Emmett 332 and Nampa, 365.

Nick Reynolds was Mountain Home's top boys runner at Caldwell, running a 19:19, which placed him 48th.

Dylan Johnson's time of 19:28 placed him 52nd. Robby Pack ran a 19:32, good for 55th, James Simon ran a 19:37, 59th, and Garrett Wood came in 60th with a 19:39. Gavin Cline ran a 20:03, and Colby Hall ran a 20:22.

Taylor Croft led the Tiger boys in the JV competition, running a 21:16, Chris Austin ran a 21:36, Andrew Martin ran a 21:43, Stephen Bush came in with a 22:18, Aaron Menheart ran a 25:27, and Nick McClaine had his person best time of 29:18.

Coach Root was pleased with their efforts at the Caldwell meet.

"The kids ran extremely well at Caldwell. That's the first time in many years that we've put five kids under the 20-minute mark, and we were running without our number one runner at the time, and the kids placed well ahead of a lot of the 4A schools and a couple 5A schools, so I was real pleased with the way we ran Thursday at Caldwell."