Rocky Mountain harriers run well in Worland

With stronger numbers now at hand, the Rocky Mountain cross country team turned in strong performances at the Worland Invitational Thursday, with several athletes running personal records at the Worland Golf Course.

The team did lose junior Hudson May to the football team, his wrist now healed, but junior Xander Tippetts ran a solid time of 20:28 to place 24th in the junior varsity division. Junior Cole Minchow missed setting a personal record by just three seconds, running a time of 20:56 to place 30th in the JV division.

Freshman Dalan Wambeke set a new personal record with a time of 21:42, and junior Alex Hedges ran 23:19, senior Noah Johnson 25:53.

For the girls squad, sophomore Evynn Alvarez placed 29th in the junior varsity division with a time of 27:33, and senior Gwynff Bodtke ran 27:46 (31st), sophomore Ellie Alvarez 30:57.

“We just keep working to get better each week,” coach Tim Jones said. “Increasing our workouts each week is helping our runners to decrease their times most weeks. There were a lot of distractions this week with homecoming activities, but our kids came to run, and most did better than last week.”

The Grizzlies will wrap up the regular season Friday at the Powell Invitational, held at the Powell golf course. Middle school racing begins at noon, high school at 1 p.m. with the junior varsity girls, followed by the JV boys at 1:30, varsity girls at 2 and the varsity boys at 2:30.

The Five Rivers Conference meet will be held Thursday, Oct. 12, at Wyoming Indian High School in Ethete, though Fort Washakie High School is the host. Running begins at 4 p.m.