Weiser runners post best times of season

Weiser’s varsity cross country runners posted some of their best times of the season last weekend at the Bob Firman Invitational at Eagle Island State Park, a major athletic event that attracted thousands of competitors.

 The race has become one of the biggest in the Northwest with more than 4,000 runners competing this year. They represented nearly 200 schools and nine states. The 5-K course is a scenic loop around water features and includes rough trail and mixed flat and hills. 

 The large number of teams that made the trip were divided into divisions. The Weiser varsity girls competed in a group of 34 teams. The boys competed against runners from 40 other schools.

 When the scores were added up, the top three teams for the varsity boys in the division were Star Valley, Sugar-Salem and Salmon. For the girls, the three top finishers in team scores at the meet were Sugar-Salem, Hardin and Morgan.

 Weiser’s two top runners both ran their best races of the season, and all of the varsity runners had good times.

 “The whole team did really well. Almost everyone performed their best this season. I think the atmosphere and the competition definitely gave them a boost of adrenaline, Weiser coach Scott Hale said.

 Weiser senior Abbey Shirts took fifth place out of a large field of varsity runners and ran her fastest race of the season so far. Her time of 19 minutes, 35 seconds was her first finish this year under 20 minutes. 

 Shirts was only 26 seconds behind second-place finisher Kaybree Christensen of Raft River, who finished in 19:09.50, and less than one minute out of first place, which was won by Amelia Pullen of Washougal, Wash., with a time of 18:39.30.

 Other Weiser varsity girls who ran the race included Ellie Walker (24:20.50), Alonna Freeland (24:39.20), Emily Abramson (24:49.70), Ashlyn Walker (25:05.60), Libbie Rynearson (26:17.90).

 Senior Rhett Kunz paced the Weiser varsity boys with a new personal record and his best race of the season with a time of 17 minutes, 22 seconds. That was about 53 seconds faster than the time of 18:15.4 he posted at the Nyssa Invitational on Sept. 12 and the first time he has run under 18 minutes this season.

 In a field of 290 varsity runners, the winner in the division was Kooper Williams, of Sugar-Salem, who blazed the course in 15:45.20. Second place went to Peter Visser, of Star Valley, who was 16 seconds behind the leader and finished in 16:01.40.

 The Weiser varsity boys team had a number of runners that finished close together, including Tyler Walker (20:20.90), Guillermo Cobos (20:23.40), Colton Foster (20:23.70), Nate Lattin (20:32.60), Mitchell Westover (21:32.00).

 For the Weiser cross country teams, the event marked the halfway point of the season. This week, the Wolverines will run against other teams in the Snake River Valley Conference at the SRV league meet on Wednesday at Payette.

 Weiser’s coach said the faster times posted at the Bob Firman Invite by individual runners on the team is an indication that they are progressing.

 “We’re starting to see some return runners get some PRs, so I’d have to say we’re right on track with where we need to be right now. There’s still several weeks to continue improving toward our peak performance at district and state,” Hale said.

 The SRV league meet will be held at McCain Middle School in Payette on Wednesday.