Windy, cooler conditions played a factor on Saturday, but the Powell High School girls’ cross country team completed a season-long goal, reclaiming the 3A state title for the first time since 2023, led by senior Karee Cooley’s individual state title. The Panther boys also had some season best times in a sixth place finish in Cheyenne.

TITLE WINNERS

Heading into this season the Panthers had the goal of returning to the top of the 3A standings, with the defending state champion spearheading a younger group of Panthers anchored by a couple of additional seniors.

Cooley fulfilled her role, claiming a second straight title in 18 minutes, 53.32 seconds.

She was followed by sophomore Anyston Keller, who joined her in the top three with a third place finish in 19:58.68, her second straight All-State performance.

“I feel like this year was a bigger achievement because I got third instead of 10th. It felt really good because I’ve been injured for the last week-and-a-half,” Keller said.

That placement was possible due to a significant amount of training over the summer, as Keller improved her time by 44 seconds from last year helping the Panthers claim the team title by 15 points over Worland with 56.

“I couldn’t run for the past week-and-a-half, so all the summer training had to kick in,” Keller said. “It was really exciting, I’m really proud of our team. We all worked very hard to do what we did.”

Keller was followed by a pair of runners who competed closely with her throughout the year, as fellow sophomore Kaytlee George took 11th in 20:35.69, and freshman Aubree Kraft took 16th in 21:03.5.

Another closely grouped trio completed the Panther lineup in Cheyenne, as senior Eleasah Horsley took 25th to complete the scoring with a time of 22:01.49, sophomore Kara Sanders placed 28th with a time of 22:09.71 and senior Paige Sanders was the seventh Panther across the line in 32nd with a time of 22:19.36.

“Every single person is very important in our race, because we’ve got our front runner, and then me, Kaytlee and Aubree have been so close all year so we’re all getting really good points. Then Eleasah, Paige and Kara also have been very close all year, so everyone on the team is a very important aspect in winning this,” Keller said.

Anchoring as the fifth runner, Horsley helped secure the victory for Powell, as Worland had five runners across before the Panthers.

“I felt a lot more important than I have in the past because I knew I was the tiebreaker. I’d always look at Shelby [Zickefoose] last year and I’d be like, ‘oh she’s the anchor to the team. She’s probably one of the most valuable players,’” Horsley said. “I feel like I really had to work at it, but I felt a lot more confident this year.”

Being one of the three senior runners leading the Panther varsity team mostly composed of freshmen and sophomores, Horsley believes they’ve improved the younger runners’ mentality and showed them the importance of competing every week and getting mentally ready before each race.

“I feel like the underclassmen just really looked up to us,” she said. “I felt like in warm-ups, we helped with the mentality because some of them didn’t have as good of a mentality going into things. We’re like, this is how we’ve got to think if we want to be on top.”

The Panther girls return three of their top four and four of their top six runners next year, as coach Ashley Hildebrand noted the team had a goal all year of getting back on top of the podium.

“That’s been our goal every year to get back on top. We’ve been close, but to do it this year has been great with that group of kids,” Hildebrand said. “We lose some seniors, but we still have a great group of younger kids that I think are going to compete well next year as well.”

BOYS SIXTH

The Panther boys also put together a strong day Saturday, but finished just outside of a trophy and All-State places in Cheyenne.

Ryder DeBoer led the chase, as he ended his freshman year in 16th with a time of 17:45.8.

Senior Nathan Varian was close behind in 23rd with a season best time of 18:04.56, and juniors Michael Stensing and Channing Wenzel were 34th and 39th with times of 18:46.8 and 19:01.8 respectively.

Sophomore Karson Howe took 41st and ran a personal best race with a time of 19:14.3, senior Ben Smith was 59th with a time of 20:09.8 and sophomore Wyatt Hill was 63rd with a time of 20:39.8.

The Panther boys finished sixth with 153 points, 24 behind Douglas and 51 behind Rawlins for the final spot on the podium as Mountain View took the team title with 54.

“I felt that they raced really well … The goal is to always get on the podium, but I’m just really pleased with how well they ran today because it was cold,” Hildebrand said. “They’ve shown a lot of improvement … I think the younger kids are just going to keep getting better and better … We’ve got some eighth graders coming in as well that I think are really going to help the boys’ team out. So I’m really looking forward to next year with the boys’ team.”

She noted that every runner, boys and girls, ran a faster time this year in worse weather than they did last year.

“Cross country is a really hard sport, mentally and physically. As a coach, the most gratifying thing to see is the growth in these kids over the course of their high school career,” Hildebrand said. “Not only do they get faster, but more importantly, their confidence blooms. They learn they can bounce back from a bad practice or race and that they can persevere when it gets hard.”