The Powell High School cross country teams turned in fast performances in Worland, as Karee Cooley won individually and the Panther girls won the team title while the boys’ team was seventh in Worland on Friday.

Cooley broke away from the pack early, running on her own for most of the race and turning in a time of 19 minutes, 16.64 seconds, for her first win of the season by 23 seconds. She improved on her time a year ago by two seconds.

Three Panthers closely grouped together helped solidify the winning team score, as Kaytlee George took sixth with a 20:23.35, Aubree Kraft placed seventh with a 20:26.33 and Anyston Keller was eighth with a 20:39.68.

“Our running trifecta of Anyston, Aubree and Kaytlee packed up just after the 2 mile and ran the rest of the way together,” coach Ashley Hildebrand said.

Finishing the team score was Kara Sanders, who took 28th with a time of 22:22.39.

Just one place behind her was Eleasah Horsley, who was 29th with a 22:33.6.

Paige Sanders was the final varsity runner with a time of 23:04.6 to take 34th overall.

As a team the Panthers won with 50 points, 16 ahead of Cody in second and host Worland was third with 72.

“It was a great team effort by all of the girls and it paid off,” Hildebrand said.

In the boys’ race, the Panthers were led by Ryder DeBoer once again with a personal best time of 17:54.56 to take 14th.

Second and third for the Panthers reached the line in a virtual tie, as Michael Stensing just reached the line before Nathan Varian, finishing in 18:48.03 and 18:48.05 to take 27th and 28th respectively.

Ben Smith was fourth across, as he took 41st with a 19:36.85.

Justin Marquez rounded out the team scoring just ahead of Karson Howe, as Marquez had a 56 second PR to take 58th in 21:03.96 and Howe was 59th with a 21:04.83.

Wyatt Hill was the final varsity runner for the boys as he took 62nd with a 21:25.76.

As a team the Panther boys had 150 points, just one behind Wyoming Indian in sixth, as Buffalo, Worland and Cody were the top three squads.

“After posting great times on the hilly courses that we ran on last weekend and a hard week of practice, we were really proud of how well our teams competed,” Hildebrand said. “The Worland course is not particularly hard, but there are some rollers (hills) and a good chunk of the last mile is pretty desolate with not a lot of fan support. That can be really hard when you are by yourself and gapped between groups of runners as can be common in these smaller races.”

In the JV girls’ race the Panthers saw Abigail Curdy take seventh with a time of 24:56.9, Natalee Laing was ninth with a 25:19.23 and Jordyn Nelson was 32nd with a 31:54.99.

Matthew Watson was the lone JV runner for the boys with a 23:07 to take 42nd.

Powell continues its Wyoming schedule this week, going to Cody on Friday for the Foxes and Hounds.

In this event, all of the junior varsity runners take off at the same time, followed by the No. 7 runners all the way to the No. 1 runner starting in 20 second intervals.

Girls are set to start at 3:30 p.m. and the boys are set to follow at 4:15 p.m.

The Panthers return home for their lone home event of the season on Friday at the Powell Golf Club.