Winters, McNiven pace Burlington schools harriers at meet in Lander

Burlington’s middle and high school cross country teams competed in Lander last week. 

“Lander moved the course back to the golf course, which our kids were happy about,” said Coach Ryan Olson. “It has a couple of pretty steep hills, but our kids have been working out quite a bit out on Table Mountain, which prepared them well.” 

Freshmen Kellen Winters and Kelli McNiven continue to excel in their respective races. In the varsity boys, Winters once again took the top spot out of 49 runners and McNiven took third in the varsity girls race out of 23 runners, all from larger schools. 

“Kellen tried something a little different this week,” said Olson. “Instead of leading from start to finish, he tried staying back for the first mile and then working on his speed and passing kids the rest of the race. The result was the same, but it’s always good to work on different things. I love watching Kelli run; her form and stride are beautiful to watch and she continues to improve each week.” 

In the middle school races earlier in the day, Jaxon Buck placed in the top 10 out of 132 athletes. 

“Kaleb Christofferson and Kobe Winters are a couple of our Riverside runners that are also getting better every week. I’ve also been impressed with sixth grader Suzie Ball. She was hurt a little bit at the beginning of the season, but keeps showing up to practice, ready to run with a great attitude,” said Olson. 

The middle school and high school athletes will be running in Worland at the Warrior Invitational Friday with middle school races starting at 1 p.m. and high school races starting at 3 p.m. 

LANDER RESULTS

VARSITY GIRLS (5,000 METER) — 3, Kelli McNiven, 20:44.42. 

JV GIRLS — 14, Sydney Jacobson, 32:51.02. 15, Darcy Robertson, 32:54.18. 

VARSITY BOYS (5,000 METER) — 1, Kellen Winters, 17:40.94. 7, Connor Hoyt, 18:17.10. 9, Bradford Davidson, 19:02.56. 45, Ben Mendenhall, 25:02.89. 

JV BOYS — 11, Hyrum McNiven, 21:48.23. 31, Bryant Casey, 24:37.72. 32, Ariel Cordova, 24:38.72. 42, Brian O’Barr, 28:29.05. 45, Jackson Olson, 39:54.20. 

MS GIRLS (3,200 METER) — 11, Hailey McNiven, 14:21.39. 16, Natalie McNiven, 14:44.03. 94, Suzie Ball, 20:42.36. 

MS BOYS (3,200 METER) — 8, Jaxon Buck, 12:32.84. 13, Spencer Hamilton, 12:50.20. 18, Bret Winters, 13:10.59. 35, Kaleb Christopherson, 13:56.47. 46, Tanner Dunlap, 14:46.70. 50, Davin Buck, 14:51.37. 69, Kobe Winters, 15:44.01. 72, Charles McNiven, 15:49.14.