Home support and cooler temperatures brought out 18 personal best times for the Panther cross country teams at the Pinnacle Bank/Panther Invitational on Friday at the Powell Golf Club.

Leading the way for the girls was Kinley Cooley (19:38.46), who followed up her school record breaking performance by lowering her time by 15 seconds to finish in fourth place.

Just behind her and setting a new personal record in fifth place was Kenna Jacobsen (20:07.24) — placing her sixth all-time on the PHS cross country team.

Coming in 11th with her own PR was Brynn Hillman (20:44.61).

Just behind her, breaking into the 20’s for the first time in her career, was Melissa Merritt (20:59.58) in 14th.

Rounding out the scoring for Powell was Megan Jacobsen, who finished in 16th (21.01.02) for her own PR.

In her first year of cross country, Megan Jacobsen has consistently worked to lower her time based on her experience in track — while also learning through each race.

“I was working out all summer and started running once I decided I was going to do cross country. I had to rely on my experience from track and trust my coaches,” she said. “It has been a learning process for every race. After every race I think of something else I could have done differently so I work on that every week.”

Just five seconds behind Jacobsen was Audrey Johnson (21:06.38), finishing in 18th with a PR.

Finishing the placements for the varsity squad was Jordan Black (21:17.97) who finished with a PR in 19th.

“Every girl on the varsity team ran a personal best and it was very promising to see our 3-7 runners come so close to breaking into the 20’s,” coach Ashley Hildebrand said. “The girls’ team placed second to Cody once again, but closed the gap a little more this week.”

Powell finished with 47 points, just 12 behind Cody.

On the boys’ side, Daniel Merritt again led the way for Powell — finishing in fourth place (16:43.54).

Korbyn Warren set a PR, breaking into the 17’s and finishing in 20th (17:59.22).

Just behind Warren in 24th place was Jace Hyde (18:10.5), who set another PR by 11 seconds. He has continued to show improvement in recent weeks, also competing in his first season of cross country.

“I have done distance in track and decided to run cross country to help stay in shape for basketball,” Hyde said. “I push myself harder at practice because after every meet I think to myself, ‘I can run faster.’”

Three more runners broke into the 18’s when Breckin Streeter (18:46.43), Juan Torres (18:49.55) and Liam Taylor (18:51.35) set PR’s to finish in 32nd, 34th and 35th respectively.

Finishing off the varsity squad with a 31 second PR was Justin Hobbs (19:12.21), who came in 38th.

The Panthers finished in fifth as a team out of 10 teams in attendance.

“The boys placed fifth this year, which was an improvement on their seventh place finish at this meet last year,” Hildebrand said. “They keep getting stronger and working together to place better as a team each meet.”

Kaden Chatfield from Riverton broke the course record with a 16:02.52 to win the boys’ race.

For the junior varsity, Shelby Zickefoose won the girls’ race finishing with a PR of nearly a minute to finish in 21:34.33.

Salem Brown finished in fifth (22:38.66) and Gracie Wolff placed eighth (24:07.54).

Kyle North led the way for the boys’ junior varsity, finishing in 19:02.28 to take 10th.

David Polson ran his best time of the season to place 23rd (20:26.78) with Jon Hawley just behind him in 24th with a season best time (20:30.05).

Landon Hyde (21:10.12) finished 32nd; Tate Allred placed 36th (21:24.79); Drew Valdez (26:03.29) placed 55th and Colin Walker (30:09.01) took 59th.

The season is quickly coming to an end, with the Panthers heading to Lander this Thursday to run in the 3A West Conference Meet starting at 1 p.m.

“Lander’s course will be the toughest course we run on all year, so it will be a good mental and physical test against some really strong teams,” Hildebrand said.

That meet will include 3A West foes Cody and Evanston, who moved down to 3A this year and defeated the Panther girls at the pre-state meet in Ethete earlier this season.