{gallery}09_24_09/crosscountry{/gallery} With a parade of orange jerseys trailing her down the course, Powell's Desiree Murray leads a cluster of runners at the Rocky Mountain High School cross country invitational on Monday. Tribune photo by Randal Horobik PHS runners sweep titles as girls sweep top threeThe Powell Panthers cross country teams made it look easy on Monday afternoon, sweeping to both the boys' and the girls' titles at the Rocky Mountain Invitational in Lovell. Nine Powell runners finished in the top 10. Powell's dominance was particularly evident in the girls' varsity race. Panther runners turned in a 1-2-3 finish, led by freshman Brooke Nisley in a time of 21:07. Alyssa Rodriguez crossed the finish line 19 seconds behind while Emily Schwahn capped the Powell parade with a third-place time of 21:51.

The Panthers weren't done though. Lauren Fagnant crossed in sixth place with a time of 22:19. Desiree Murray was seventh another nine seconds back. Kass MacDonald also found her way into the top 10 with a time of 22:41.

“It was nice to see Brooke win one,” said Panther head coach Cliff Boos. “She's been running really hard the last couple of weeks and placing well for us at meets.”

The individual title for Nisley came just days after the freshman captured a runner-up title in Lander.

On the boys' side, Powell edged Cody by seven points to win the team title, 29-36. Rocky Mountain was third with a score of 41.

Cody Fagley led the way for the Panthers with a time of 17:41. Fagley's time left him as the boys' runner-up, 23 seconds off the winning pace of Lovell's Collin May.

Danny McKearney placed sixth with a time of 18:54 to also make the top 10 for the Panthers. Bodie Friday, still hobbled by a knee injury he sustained last Thursday in Lander, ran to a ninth-place time of 19:14.

“Overall, our kids ran really well today,” said Boos. “Especially when you consider that they were running on a Monday, I thought we ran well and showed good improvement.”

After two meets in the span of five days, the Panthers will take the rest of this week to relax and train. The team will not return to competition until an Oct. 1 appearance in Worland.

“That's a nice meet for us,” said Boos. “They've run things on the same course there for a number of years, so we know what to expect. We use their course to establish our school record because it is the same year after year.”

The Panthers will also benefit from having a few extra training days before their next meet.

“We'll have an extra four days to work before we return to our ‘normal' week routine,” said Boos. “We'll be able to send the kids on a safari one day, work distance one day, run some hills and do some speed work. All of that is nice to be able to do at this point in the season. We still have room for improvement.”