Runners head to Sugar City for debut

The Mountain Home Tigers cross country team opens their season Friday at Sugar City.

Tiger cross country coach Doug Root was hoping for more numbers this season, but has some good runners.

"We've got 17 kids right now, which is down a little from what we've been the last few years -- we've been as high as 30-35. They're good kids, and I think they'll come along.

"The best returning is senior Andy Croft. He's put in about 350 miles this summer and he's looking real strong right now. We're going to have to do some work on his speed, but as far as endurance, he's got that.

"Most of the rest of the kids didn't do a lot of running this summer -- some did a little bit, and it shows. If we work hard, and for a while here, we're going to be putting in two-a-days to build up our base. We've got to have a base of between 50 and 100 miles before we can even start working on speed, so that will be the first emphasis, to get our base down, and get a few more bodies out."

Root has a couple runners leading the girls squad.

"Right now my best returning girls are probably Shilo Clark, who is a sophomore this year, and Tracey Gordon," the coach said. "There's a couple of the other girls I would like to see come out, who aren't out yet."

Coach Root expects the conference to be very competitive this year.

"Bishop Kelly, Kuna, Skyview, Columbia -- Nampa has a good boys team this year -- so, as always, our conference is going to be very, very tough this year."

The Tigers open their season on Friday at Sugar City.

"It's a scramble, so it's a little bit different format," said Coach Root. "I'm not sure how they're scrambling it at this time, so I can't give you any more details on that.

"This meet is in place of the old Mud Run that we used to go to at Firth -- things happened and they couldn't get that facility. We are going to go to a mud-run type deal up at McCall later -- a Dash and Splash," the coach said.

"We try to do some things that are fun to do, because just flat running is just -- they enjoy it, and it's good for them, but you've got to do some other things to spice it up, too.

"We do have a home meet this year, and we've already got 15 teams signed up to come to our meet, so we should have a good quality meet," he added.