One final trip to Montana paid dividends for the Powell Panther cross country team as the girls claimed victory via a tiebreaker and the boys finished second at the Fergus Eagle Invite in Lewistown, Montana.

Heading back to the Montana course for a second year in a row the Panthers took the challenge of the hills at the Lewistown course head on.

“This is probably one of the most challenging, hillier courses that we will run all year, but our runners took that challenge head on and ran some excellent times,” coach Ashley Hildebrand said.

Kinley Cooley led the Panthers once again with a second place finish in a time of 19 minutes and 14 seconds.

Behind Cooley was Kenna Jacobsen, who used a strong finish to push her way to fourth place with a time of 20:25.

Karee Cooley was the third Panther across, taking ninth with a time of 21:07.

Wrapping up the fourth and fifth places for the Panthers were Melissa Merritt and Shelby Zickefoose, finishing 22nd and 25th with times of 21:54 and 22:00, respectively.

After the first five runners, Powell and Hardin were tied on points, which meant it came down to the sixth runner.

Thankfully, Powell had Eleasah Horsley to the rescue, finishing 30th with a time of 22:17.

“Eleasah came in clutch to break the tie, coming across the line ahead of Hardin’s sixth girl,” Hildebrand said. “I told Eleasah she was the true MVP of the day. Your sixth and seventh runners don’t score points, but they matter a lot because they can break up the other team’s top five scorers and, like Eleasah, break a tie to bring home the win.”

Macie Velasco was the final runner for the Panthers in 37th with a time of 22:54.

For the Panther boys, Liam Taylor returned and led the way to the tune of a third place finish with a time of 17:21.

Korbyn Warren was second across, also earning a top 10 finish after placing eighth with a time of 18:07.

Colin Walker was third, finishing in 18th with a time of 18:39.

Alex Warner came in 49th, just ahead of Channing Wenzel in 52nd with times of 20:11 and 20:21, respectively.

Michael Legerski was the sixth runner in 70th with a time of 21:36 and Troy Cheatham was seventh with a time of 22:19 to take 84th.

Hardin ran away with the boys’ team title with 37 points as the Panthers were second with 110 points.

The JV girls were led by Salem Brown in third place (24:02); Jordan Black in fourth (24:03); Ashlee Jacobsen in sixth (24:38); Allison LeBlanc in 17th (26:12); Paige Sanders in 23rd (26:42) and Jordyn Nelson in 31st (27:27).

The JV boys were led by Michael Stensing in 16th (21:30); Thomas Shuman in 19th (21:58); Ben Smith in 20th (22:00) and Nelson Kohlbus in 27th (22:31).

“They love this course and look forward to going back again next year,” Hildebrand said.

That wrapped up the races in Montana for the Panthers this season, as they will return to Wyoming this week.

Powell heads to Worland at 3 p.m. Thursday for its next meet.