Husky Cross Country team earns wins at Conference meet

The Five Rivers Conference Regional Cross-Country Meet was held in Ethete on Friday. Pushing the meet back a day because of weather didn’t stop the Huskies, who came home with the boys team championship and two individual titles in the boys’ and girls’ divisions.
“It was nice for the kids to run under cool, cloudy skies and it gave them a chance to run a great race,” said Coach Ryan Olson. “Howard McNiven finished with the individual title and a time of 17:17. Paul McNiven and Connor Hoyt also finished in the top five and received all-conference rankings. James Bassett was our fourth scorer, finishing under 20 minutes, a goal many of our boys have had this year. The team scores were close, which means every place counts.”
Finishing close behind Bassett and just outside the top four, James McNiven, Levi Wardell and Bruce McNiven will continue to push and it will be a race to be that fourth scorer at state.
On the girls’ side, Jessie Michaels also came away with an individual title, finishing with a 21:15. “She’s been an amazing team captain this year, always keeping workouts challenging, yet positive. She has been an excellent example to our high school runners, as well as the younger kids. She was joined by Joey Chatwin and Linnie McNiven on the all-conference team. Those two girls worked so hard this season to lower their times. I loved watching them pick up those awards, they certainly deserve it,” said Olson.
The girls’ team didn’t pick up a team ranking because they were missing their fourth runner, Cadence Schlenker, who injured an ankle a couple days earlier. “I feel bad for her, she tried warming up before the race, but in the end, we decided it wasn’t worth making it worse. Cadence will focus on getting healthy this week and hopefully be ready to run at state,” said Olson.
The Huskies head to Cheyenne this Saturday for the state meet. “We’re all excited about Cheyenne,” said Olson.” “We’ve been seeing our times go down this year, but we know other teams are working hard, too. The last two years, our championships have come down to a single point. I wouldn’t be surprised to see another really close meet this year. It will come down to who happens to perform best on race day. That is exactly what we want and we’ll work hard to be ready to go on Saturday.”

FIVE  RIVERS CONFERENCE RESULTS
GIRLS— 1, Jessie Michaels, 21:15.91; 3, Linnie McNiven, 22:57.48; 8, Joey Chatwin, 23:43.54.

BOYS — 1, Howard McNiven, 17:17.97; 3, Paul McNiven, 18:19.56; 4, Connor Hoyt, 18:21.57; 17, James Bassett, 19:58.62; 18, James McNiven, 20:01.47; 19, Levi Wardell, 20:04.83; 23, Bruce McNiven, 20:25.73; 36, Nick Olmstead, 21:29.24; 37, Colt Haslam, 21:30.83; 53, Greg McNiven, 23:57.01; 59, Oliver Nordberg, 25:36.87; 61, Brian O’Barr, 26:06.30.