Runners place at Warrior Mountain

Mountain Home's cross county team faired well during the Warrior Mountain Classic cross country race at Smith's Ferry on Saturday.

The Tigers girl's team actually tied with Meridian for first with 28 points each. But the tie-breaker involves the placement of each team's sixth place runner.

Meridian's sixth-place runner finished 10th overall while Mountain Home's runner trailed by two, giving Meridian the first-place title.

Meanwhile the Caldwell runners finished the competition with 117 points while Columbia and McCall-Donnelly didn't field girls teams during this year's tournament.

Keesha Janis-Gibson led Mountain Home, finishing second with a time of 23 minutes, 5.67 seconds. Kacee Cameron was third at 23:14.97, Sarah Richins seventh at 24:00.19, Shelby Henrick was 10th at 24:06.42, Arisha Karren 14th at 25:08.35, Aerial Groene was 15th at 25:17.17, Alicia Reynolds 17th at 27:16.70, Shalonda Reed 19th at 27:58.08, Tracey Gordon 26th at 28:56.74, Aundrea Dickenson 27th at 28:58.10 and Erika Cook 33rd at 33:47.96.

During the boys' competition, Meridian's runners won with 27 points. Columbia was second with 57 while Mountain Home finished third with 82. Caldwell came in fourth with 95 points while McCall-Donnelly didn't field a full team.

Mike Price led the Tigers boys' squad, finishing seventh in a time of 19 minutes, .70 seconds. Taylor Croft came in 14th at 19:56.40, Daniel Courtright was 17th at 20:15.85, Andy Croft 21st at 21:00.73, Steven Kreyche 22nd at 21:16.42, Peyton Cline 24th at 21:30.39 and Jon Dodge was 26th at 21:48.60.

Tyler Knauth led the Mountain Home junior varsity boys squad, finishing fourth with a time of 21 minutes, 26.13 seconds. Cody Ashby was 17th at 23:17.82, Nolan Pasqualetti 25th at 23:55.14, Connor McCellan 32nd at 24:51.05 for a new personal record, Bill King 35th at 25:13.25, Andrew Turner 36th at 26:06.91 and Cody Price was 48th at 30:57.28.

"The kids ran well," said Tigers' cross country coach Doug Root.

"It was an extremely tough hill course with one hill on the course is referred to as '45 degrees to hell.' They did a good job."