A strong contingent of Powell Middle School girls’ cross country runners helped the Cubs race past the competition to a conference title while the boys finished fifth at the conference meet in Powell in October.

“We had a lot of consistent improvement and performances throughout the season by both teams, it showed by their effort at the culminating event of conference,” coach Marc McArthur said.

Leading the way for the Powell girls was a trio of racers in the top six, led by Anyston Keller in fourth with a time of 12 minutes 59.26 seconds, just under a second ahead of Kara Sanders in fifth with a 12:59.85.

Rounding out the first three runners for Powell was Lynea Christensen in sixth with a time of 13:05.89.

After the first three runners, the Cubs were four points ahead of their cross county rivals Cody with 12 points after a Burlington runner in the top five helped shift each racer up a place. Burlington did not have enough runners to score.

Powell gained another point advantage when Landyn Horsley placed 13th with a time of 13:46 just ahead of a Cody runner, and Karen Richmond finished 15th with a time of 14:09.02 to round out the team score for Powell.

The Cubs finished with 38 points to finish six ahead of their rivals who finished with 44 points.

Stella Leighton finished in 19th (14:20.12) and Aubree Kraft finished in 24th (14:28.79) to round out the top seven for Powell.

Other finishers for the Cubs included RaeAnn Jackson, who placed 30th (14:39.68), Charlie Taylor placed 32nd (14:43.08), Harper Tatom placed 36th (15:00.4), Hayden Serr placed 48th (15:20.57), Beth Black placed 61st (15:53.57), Audrey Hultgren placed 67th (16:19.07), Sophia Serr placed 73rd (16:33.59), Timber Eastman placed 81st (17:18.07) and Gaige Tharp placed 95th (20:10.4).

Overall the Cub girls’ team featured six eighth graders, five seventh graders and four sixth graders.

McArthur said the girls never finished below second at a meet, and won half of the six races they competed in this season.

On the boys’ side the Cubs featured one runner who placed in the top 20, with Ethan Kennedy placing 13th (12:36.34).

The next placer for Powell was Christoper LeBlanc in 30th (13:26.28), Carter Gambill in 35th (13:43.8), Cyrus Graham in 37th (13:54.38) and Wyatt Hill in 42nd (14:05.16) to round out the team score for Powell.

Powell finished with a team score of 143, tying Burlington in score overall, but the Cubs had a sixth runner to win the tiebreaker for fifth place while Burlington did not have a sixth runner.

“Though the boys did not win conference, they turned in their best average team time for the season,” McArthur said.

The Cub boys finished just four behind Lovell which was fourth, and Riverton was third with 125 points.

Lander ran away with the boys’ title with 43 points.

Rounding out the top seven for the Cub boys were Caleb Cameron in 48th (14:15.49) and Manti Jeide in 58th (14:36.45).

Other placers for the Cubs included Gabe Leighton in 69th (15:01.35), Harper Havron in 92nd (15:36.43), Zadien Powell in 97th (16:07.64), Connor Ferguson in 107th (16:45.65), Tanner Quinterno in 115th (17:22.71), Murray Chavarria in 121st (18:17.53), Dylan Cameron in 122nd (18:24.43) and Joshua Varian in 123rd (18:28.12).

Overall the Cub boys’ team had a strong contingent of young athletes, featuring five eighth graders, five seventh graders and five sixth graders, including the top four runners eligible to return to the middle school team next year, with five of the top seven runners being sixth graders.