The Powell High School and Powell Middle School cross country teams navigated their home course to four top-three finishes last Friday.

The PHS boys and girls each finished third overall in the Powell Invite, the final regular season meet before Friday’s conference meet in Lander.

The Cubs boys’ team won their meet, the season finale for middle school, while the girls took third.

The Panther girls took third with 63 overall points, and were led by sophomore Emma Andreasen, the top PHS finisher from either side.

Andreasen’s time of 21:14.97 was a 1:20 improvement compared to last year’s Powell Invite.

“That’s the way it’s been all season,” PHS head coach Cliff Boos said. “She’s really gotten herself into great shape.”

Freshman Alan Merritt was the top runner for the Powell boys. He took 11th overall with a time of 18:18.48 as the boys placed third with 88 points.

Junior Teo Faulkner and sophomore JuliaKay O’Neill followed Andreasen for 10th and 14th place, respectively.

Faulkner finished in 21:50.65 and O’Neill clocked in 22:36.13 despite a lingering foot issue.

“She’s still not 100 percent, but able to run a bit,” Boos said. “We’ll try to rest her as much as possible. There’s not much you can do for training at this point, anyway.”

Sophomore Maddy Hanks was just 10 seconds behind O’Neill and finished in 15th. Hanks finally overcame illness and finished in 22:46.90.

“She’s just like her sister (senior Danna Hanks),” Boos said. “They really do well and put out their best for you.”

Emily Sweet rounded out the Panther girls’ team with a 22nd-place finish and time of 24:05.94.

Behind Merritt was sophomore Eyob Robirds, whose time of 18:51.90 was good for 14th.

“It was nice to see him running well on Friday,” Boos said. “It was really encouraging.”

Senior Alex Aguirre finished 16th in 19:02.54, a time 20 seconds faster than at last year’s Powell Invite.

Sophomore Jesse Erickson also made a 20-second improvement with his time of 19:46.58, which placed him 22nd.

Freshman Alex Smith stepped up to the varsity team to take 33rd place with a time of 21:02.17. He competed in place of senior Brandon Anderson, who was away due to family obligations.

“We haven’t had all of our varsity guys. (Smith) has had to fill in and has done his best. It will be great experience for next year.”

Anderson will return to practice today (Tuesday) and will compete in Lander.

“The good news is, we should have everyone — boys and girls — ready to go for conference in Lander this week,” Boos said.

Cody won the boys’ and girls’ races while Worland was the runner up in each. Lovell and Rocky Mountain placed behind Powell to take fourth and fifth, respectively, in both races.

Runners from Thermopolis and Normative Services also competed, but they did not have enough participants to qualify for a team score.

Boos said he will run a light practice today (Tuesday) and taper his runners ahead of Friday’s meet.

“They have a pretty good hill,” Boos said of the Lander course. “Of course, we’ve been doing our hill the last several weeks. That gives them a lot of confidence.”

The PMS boys won their conference meet behind eighth-grader Colin Queen, who was the day’s top runner.

“He’s had a good battle with Owen Preston, who was the second place runner from Cody,” Boos said.

Queen beat Preston by nine seconds.

Four Cubs finished in the top 10 — Queen, Jesse Brown (3rd), Dylan Cordes (8th) and Aidan Jacobsen (9th).

“I think we’ll get a real good group of kids from eighth grade that want to continue running,” Boos said.

The middle school girls were led by eighth-grader Kayla Kolpitcke, who was third overall.

“We’re looking forward to having her in high school next year,” Boos said.

Seventh-grader Emma Karhu finished sixth overall.

The girls raced in a field of 100 runners, while 89 ran in the boys’ race.