Racing in front of the home crowd for the first and only time this season provided a jolt to the Powell Panther cross country team, with the Panther girls winning the meet narrowly over four-time defending state champions and rival Cody while the boys continued to climb the top 10 rankings at Powell High School.

A smaller junior varsity had the girls race combined into one, and that did not slow down the Panthers from earning a strong showing on a warm October day at the Powell Golf Club.

Leading the way for Powell for the second week in a row was Karee Cooley, who continued her strong freshman campaign with a personal best time of 19:50.67 to take third place.

Close behind Cooley and finishing under 20 minutes for the first time in her career was Kenna Jacobsen, who finished fifth in 19:57.22.

After the first two runners, the Panthers and Fillies were tied at eight points before the final three runners.

Coming in seventh, just one place ahead of the next Cody runner, was Kinley Cooley, who finished in 20:09.11.

“Really I have just been trying to keep up with my sister and my cousin (Jacobsen). I always want to be with them because they do so well and I really wanted to work hard,” Karee Cooley said. “They are who I want to be with.”

With those times, Karee Cooley and Jacobsen moved into second and third all time at PHS. That means the runners with the top three times in school history are all on the current team. Kinley Cooley is still on top with her time of 19:38.46 being set at the same Pinnacle Bank/Panther Invitational last year.

“I think it’s really cool because we are all family and so close — it really means a lot,” Karee Cooley said.

A strong kick by Melissa Merritt helped push her past a Cody runner by one spot to take 11th (20:46.11) and Myah Rakness earned one last final point to take 15th (21:04.95).

Jordan Black finished 17th (21:07.22) and Shelby Zickefoose was the final varsity runner across for Powell in 18th (21:17.12).

“It is really exciting to have three girls run in the 19s this year and even better to see them hold the top three fastest 5K times for PHS cross country,” coach Ashley Hildebrand said.

Powell’s team score ended up being 38 points, just three points ahead of Cody but 44 ahead of third place Worland who had the event winner in Zena Tapia who won in 19:10.14.

“We all were crying because we were so excited and couldn’t believe that we did it,” Karee Cooley said. “Before we weren’t sure if we were going to be able to do it, we kept having hope saying we were going to do it. Now we know we can, we are just going to keep working now that we know we can do it.”

In the boys’ varsity race the Panthers had only two runners, but both ended up posting personal best times at home.

Liam Taylor finished eighth overall in the race, finishing in 17:00.31 to move into the fourth place spot all time at PHS.

Just outside the top 10 in 11th was Korbyn Warren, posting a time of 17:18.87 to move into ninth all time at PHS.

“We look for both of them to move even higher up the list in the future,” Hildebrand said.

Riverton’s Kaden Chatfield set a new course record with a 15:47.92, breaking his own record of 16:02.52 set last year.

The junior varsity boys had a top 10 finisher with Colin Walker placing seventh overall in 19:19.45, Nathan Varian placed 19th with a 20:32.31, Thomas Shuman placed 25th with a 20:55.54 and Jon Hawley rounded out the junior varsity boys race in 40th with a 22:14.09.

Neither boys’ team posted a score but all are expected to run varsity this upcoming week.

The junior varsity girls had an impressive day, placing five of the top six including the top three.

Eleasah Horsley won the race with a 21:41.82, Brynn Hillman came in second with a 21:49.32 and Salem Brown rounded out the top three with a 22:39.35.

Gracie Wolff finished fifth with a 22:40.78 and Ashlee Jacobsen finished sixth with a 22:49.17.

Almost every racer finished with a season or personal best time, while finishing with 17 points compared to Cody in second place with 38.

Powell is nearing the end of the season, starting with the conference meet this week.

That will be held in Riverton at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, where the Powell girls will hope to carry the momentum from last week to earn a 3A West conference title.

“We are very happy with how well our kids competed and where they are sitting right now,” Hildebrand said. “We are looking forward to conference and state. Our focus going into the next two weeks will be to stay healthy, eat properly, get good rest and continue working toward our goals in practice.”