Cross country teams host home meet

The Wolves and Lady Wolves cross country runners competed in their first event of the season Saturday, the invitational run Green River hosts at Pioneer Trails Picnic Grounds northwest of Green River off of Wyoming Highway 372.

Along with Green River, runners from Rock Springs, Lyman and Lander also competed at the meet.

The 5K route created at the picnic grounds has often been described by coaches and runners as one of the toughest cross country courses runners will participate on during the season, featuring hills and a mixture of hardened dirt roads and sandy trails.

For the girls, Lyman's Karly Sabey was the first to cross the finish line in 21:31.29, followed by Lander runners Anniki Wilmot and Kyra Simonson in 22:09.01 and 22:48.16. Green River's Isabelle Murdock was the first Lady Wolf to cross the line in 23:07.92, taking sixth. Her sister, Madison Murdock, took 11th in 24:36.99. Other Lady Wolves competing were Lily Murdock, who took 14th in 25:04.21; Jayleigh Wright with a time of 25:36.34 to finish 16th; Meeka Iwen, who ended with a 26th-place finish at 31:24.12; and Lydia Westenskow, taking 27th at 31:52.79.

On the boys' side, the Wolves did not field a full team and were unable to score points. Rock Springs' Charles Fossey was the first to finish in 17:32.91, followed by Diego Lobatos from Lander in 18:13.82. Nathan Stevenson of the Wolves then took third with a time of 18:36.90. Lucas Knight was the only other Wolf to earn a top-ten finish by placing eighth in 19:28.68. Other Wolves competing were Hale Iwen, who placed 17th with a time of 21:03.73 and Shay O'Melia, who placed 21st at 21:13.58.

Head coach Craig Leavitt said he anticipates more boys to be cleared for competition for the team's next meet, an invite taking place in Lander today. Four runners, Austin Corona, John Zimmerman, Gabe Montoya and Marcos Mandujano, were listed on the results as having no time. Leavitt said some of the runners didn't have enough practices logged to compete while others had prior commitments preventing them from competing.