A busy year dealing with challenging courses led to a middle of the pack finish to end the season for the Powell Middle School cross country team, as the Cub girls finished fourth and the Cub boys finished fifth at the conference meet in October.

Throughout the season, the Cubs ran into a number of challenges, as coach Mark McArthur noted it was a difficult year for the team because of the courses they decided to run.

“We had a lot of good race execution this season and most of them played to their strengths and abilities while dealing with our toughest course schedule that we have faced over the past eight years,” McArthur said. “We usually alternate the more challenging courses each season. This year, we attended the most meets and took advantage of running all the tough courses this season.”

Leading the charge for the Cub girls was Aubree Kraft, who turned in the top time all season by finishing in 12 minutes, 14.1 seconds in a 2 mile race, and finished third overall at the conference meet with a time of 13:01.82.

The second and third runners for a majority of the season according to McArthur were Bella Agee and Harper Tatom, who finished second and third respectively.

Agee was 18th at the conference meet in 14:16.59 and Tatom was 27th with a time of 14:46.88.

For the boys, the Cubs were led by Ethan Kennedy, who ran the team’s best season time of 11:49.3, taking seventh at the conference meet with a time of 12:28.31.

Behind Kennedy was the duo of Kolbie Parker and Tanner White, who finished second and third respectively.

Parker took 18th at the conference meet in a time of 13:01.39 while White was 24th with a time of 13:12.73.

Team-wise the Cub girls finished fourth with 94 points, just behind Riverton with 89. Cody ran away with the girls’ title with 31 points. The Cub boys were fifth with 114 points in a tightly contested field from second onward as the Lander boys ran away with the team title by 43 points.

While the Cubs had consistency at the top, McArthur said the team faced a number of challenges this season as injuries hindered them throughout.

“This year was riddled with nagging injuries amongst both teams,” McArthur said. “It was a little hard to gauge week to week how, as a team, the Cubs would fare amongst other teams. But, when it came to race day, all the athletes really gave it their all and fought through their injuries and were quite competitive.”

He said that throughout the season the Cubs had a number of things they were able to learn, and kept a good attitude.

“This season both teams executed the ‘attack’ of the course really well. Practice ‘whys’ were met with good attitudes and done to the best of their abilities with all the injuries,” McArthur said. “I would say some of the weaknesses were running hurt versus sore. The younger runners had really good leadership with the experienced athletes. You would hear the older athletes reiterate ‘are you really hurt or just sore’ during practices.”

He said the program continues to grow each season, adding that sixth graders being able to participate really helps the team add numbers each year with McArthur hoping the team surpasses 40 athletes next season.

“It is great that the middle school allows sixth graders the opportunity to participate in cross country, it builds them for whichever sport they may end up doing in the future,” McArthur said. “Like I tell all the athletes at the beginning of the year ‘I will take any and all of you regardless of what sport you may love at this point in your young athletic career.’”

He said the program also added an additional assistant coach this season, allowing the program to be more productive while having a better race day experience.

“I think the middle school program does a great job getting these runners prepared for their next step at the high school program,” McArthur said. “It is a pretty good jump for running the 3200 to training for the high school 5K.”