Cross Country competes at Conference

Green River's boys and girls Cross Country teams competed this past week in the 3A West Conference Cross Country meet on a tough course at the Lander Golf and Country Club. Times were down a little as expected, but the competition was tough, also as expected.

For the boys, Green River had seven runners in the field of 109 runners. The top finisher for the boys, as has been the case all season, was Nathan Stevenson. Stevenson was seeded in the top eight prior to the meet but outperformed that rating, coming in fourth overall with a time of 17:26.63 for the 5,000 meter race, which is approximately 3.1 miles.

Following Stevenson was Hal Iwen in 49th in 20.07.21, with James Harper 70th in 21:07.42, Keegan Gailey 78th in 21:24.95, Christian Oswald 85th in 21:56.39, Marcos Mandujano 86th in 21:58.90 and Jordan Andrew 87th in 21:59.07 as the last three finishers for the Wolves came in within seconds of each other.

The young and inexperienced girls team was running in a field of 66 runners and was led by Madison Murdock, who crossed the finish line in 19th place with a time of 22:40.04. She was followed closely by Lily Murdock in 22nd in 22:45.01, with Isabelle Murdock and Meeka Iwen taking 31st and 32nd respectively in 23:31.76 and 23:33.94, only two seconds apart. Pamela Pena Esdcal was 57th in 28:17.23 with Lilana Adams 59th in 28:24.34 and Kayla Worden 66th in 38.03.84.

Head Cross Country Coach Craig Leavitt commented that the girls team is "a really young team and they are learning to deal with the pressure of doing well at the big meets." Leavitt went on to say "It's such a small team that if any of the top five girls falls off or has a bad day things go badly for the whole team." The Coach felt that Nathan Stevenson "sure had a good race," exceeding his ranking going in and "really competing well above expectations."

Next up for the team will be the State Championships to be held October 22 at Wyoming Indian High School in Ethete, Wyoming.