Cross-country squad competes at home for district

Friday, October 26, 2012
The Mountain Home girls squad set the pace during the district finals, held at the Desert Canyon Golf Course in Mountain Home. Photo by Megan Heinen

The Mountain Home Tigers hosted the District III 4A cross country meet last Thursday at Desert Canyon Golf Course.

Mountain Home finished ninth in both the girls and boys races and failed to qualify any runners for the state cross country meet.

Middleton edged Bishop Kelly for the girls district cross country title, the Vikings finishing with 61 points, Bishop Kelly had 64. Skyview came in third with 79, Columbia was fourth with 86. Emmett was a distant fifth with 153 points, but still qualified for state, as the top five teams qualified. Kuna finished sixth with 165 points, followed by Nampa at 168, Caldwell with 178 and Mountain Home had 185.

Arisha Karren and Aerial Groene led Mountain Home, finishing 26th and 27th. The top 21 individuals also qualified for state. Myra Vasquez came in 34th, Shilo Clark 46th, and Tracey Gordon 52nd. Alicia Reynolds cane in 54th and Natalie Logue was 56th.

Bishop Kelly won the boys race. The Knights and Kuna tied with 50 points each, but the tie-breaker is where their sixth runner finishes, and Bishop Kelly's sixth runner was 31st, one ahead of Kuna's sixth runner. Columbia came in third with 73 and Middleton was fourth with 97. Nampa completed the five teams that qualified for state, finishing fifth with 116 points. Caldwell was sixth with 128, followed by Skyview at 177, Emmett with 239 and Mountain Home at 240.

Jake Schaefer led the Tiger boys, finishing 29th. Again, as with the girls, the top 21 runners qualify for state. Andy Croft came in 39th, Daniel Courtright was 55th, Steven Kreyche 58th, and David Catts 59th. John Goodell was 61st and Cody Ashby 62nd.

Mountain Home had two girls run in the junior varsity race. Erika Cook finished 28th and Aundrea Dickinson was 55th. The Tigers had four boys run in the junior varsity race. Nolan Pasqualetti was 36th, Riley Urquidi 37th, Bill King 71st and Andrew Turner 95th.

Tiger cross country coach Doug Root was disappointed that no Mountain Home runners qualified to run at state but acknowledged the district had some great runners this year.

"The kids ran well, by the looks on their faces when they came across the line, they gave me everything they had, and that's all you can ask. If the kids do their best job, and this group of kids has improved every week all year long, I've got no complaints on this team."

Coach Root will not lose many to graduation from this year's squad, so he's looking ahead to next year.

"I'm losing a couple senior boys and one senior girl, so we've got to replace them next year. We have a good freshman group coming up -- they finished second in their league meet out of 13 teams. We need to work over the summer and put in the miles, but we'll be okay. I'm looking forward to the group coming up."

Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration: