A warm, sunny fall afternoon led to blazing times at the Pinnacle Bank Powell Panther Invitational with both the boys and girls course records falling on Thursday.

The girls’ record was broken by Powell’s Kinley Cooley, who blasted past her school record and the course record in a time of 18 minutes, 26.8 seconds.

That broke her personal best and school record by 23 seconds, while also breaking the former course record of 18:43.36 set by Cody’s Riley Smith in 2019.

“I had told Kinley that I thought she could easily run between 18:30 and 18:45 on this course, and she just flew through the race to that 18:26,” coach Ashley Hildebrand said.

The second runner across for the Panthers also had a personal best day, with Kenna Jacobsen flying to her best time of 19:24.36 in sixth place overall, moving to second all-time for the Panthers behind Cooley and beating her PR by 33 seconds. She was 42 seconds ahead of her time from last week.

“We knew that Kenna could get back under 20 minutes this year and she really raced well,” Hildebrand said.

Third across for the Panthers was Karee Cooley, who finished in 11th with a season best time of 20:31.6.

Melissa Merritt was fourth across, just a second off her best time with a run of 20:47.9 to take 15th.

Macie Velasco rounded out the team scoring for Powell, placing 18th with a personal best time of 20:58.65.

Sixth across for Powell was Shelby Zickefoose, running a season best time of 21:31.33 to take 22nd while Eleasah Horsley rounded out the Panthers varsity team in 23rd with a time of 21:37.77.

The Panther girls finished second behind Cody, but narrowed the gap from the previous two weeks only by nine points behind the rival Fillies.

On the boys’ side the Panthers were led by Liam Taylor, who broke below 17 minutes once again with a time of 16:59.37 to take home 10th.

Korbyn Warren was the second runner across for Powell with a time of 17:44.66 to take 20th with his second fastest time of the season.

Alex Werner was third with a personal best time of 18:45.8 to take 33rd.

“We were very happy to see Alex break the 19 minute mark and PR by 25 seconds,” Hildebrand said.

Nathan Varian was 41st overall with a time of 19:27.68, Troy Cheatham finished 45th with a 19:40.95 and Channing Wenzel was 48th with a 20:08.36.

The Panthers only had six runners as Colin Walker did not race due to illness.

The boys’ course record was set by Worland’s Trajn Swalstad who won with a time of 15:40.14.

The Powell boys finished sixth as a team with 149 points, as Worland won just two points ahead of Buffalo with 37 points.

The JV girls also finished second at home, with Jordan Black finishing third with a 22:09.22, Salem Brown was sixth with a 22:27.72, Caydee Eden was 13th with a 24:13.33, Ashlee Jacobsen was 15th with a 24:44.3, Allison LeBlanc was 16th with a 25:03.94, Paige Sanders was 20th with a 25:03.94 and Jordyn Nelson was 27th with a 26:40.85.

The JV boys finished fourth as a team, led by Michael Legerski in 11th with a time of 20:13.83; Thomas Shuman was 13th with a 20:17.86, Michael Stensing was 18th with a 20:50.45, Ben Smith was 19th with a 21:02.32, and Nelson Kohlbus was 26th with a 21:32.46.

Powell now heads into the postseason, traveling to Lander to take part in the 3A West Conference meet at 1 p.m. on Thursday on a challenging course before heading to Cheyenne for the state championships on Saturday, Oct. 26.