Cross country teams finish sixth at district tourney

The Mountain Home Tigers cross country teams both finished sixth in Thursday's District III 4A cross country meet at Desert Canyon Golf Course in Mountain Home.

The top three teams and top 14 individual runners in boys and girls divisions qualified for the state meet.

Kuna won the girls' district championship with 46 points. Bishop Kelly was right behind with 48. Middleton came in third with 84. Skyview was fourth with 95, Caldwell had 97 and Mountain Home 139.

Emily Lampman led the Mountain Home girls, missing qualifying for state by three places, as she finished 17th. The Mountain Home freshman ran her personal best time of 21 minutes, 47.33 seconds. Elisabeth Stephens came in 23rd with a time of 22:12.59. Alexis Georgianna finished 30th in 23:23.12. Shilo Clark had a season best time of 23:57.27, finishing 34th, just ahead of teammate Whitney Sandberg, who had her best time at 23:57.30. Bianca Shrader came in 40th with a season best time of 25:52.24.

Bishop Kelly won the boys' district championship with 38 points. Kuna was second with 63, a point ahead of Skyview. Middleton finished fourth with 75, Caldwell had 125 and Mountain Home, 137.

Anthony DeSantis led Mountain Hone runners, just missing qualifying for state by two, finishing 16th, with a season best time of 17:48.39. Kyle Pendleton finished 22nd, with 18:14.03, also a season best. John Goodell finished 30th in 18:54.07. Josh Robinson was 34th, finishing in 19:04.92, just ahead of Christopher Payne, who had a personal best 19:28.07. Nolan Pasqualetti came in 38th in 19:50.70 and Riley Urquidi finished 42nd with a season best time of 21:14.35.

Sky Rabchenuk ran in the junior varsity boys race. The Mountain Home freshman finished 54th with his best time ever of 22:18.23.

Despite not qualifying anyone for state, Tigers cross country coach Doug Root was pleased with the efforts by his runners.

"Anthony was 16th, he needed to be 14th, and Emily was 17th and she needed to be 14th, but they ran about as well as they could run today," the coach said. "I'm pleased with everybody's performance. It was a beautiful day for a meet -- not too hot, no wind -- a fantastic day."

Coach Root feels good about the runners he should have coming back next year.

"Whitney (Sandberg) and Aundrea (Dickinson) are my two seniors on the girls' side, and my senior on the boys' side is Nolan (Pasqualetti), so we have pretty much everyone back again, and we've got a great group of eighth graders coming up," he said.

The State 4A cross country meet is this Saturday at Eagle Island State Park.