Cross country gears up for fall meets

Central Wyoming College cross country team went to Gillette August 22 to have a time trial with Gillette College. It was a cold Saturday morning for the team for the two and half mile practice run.

“For our first race of the season I was happy with the way we ran,” said Al Lara, cross country coach.

For the men’s division Clay Johnson placed sixth with a time of 12:57 with Brion Riley placing ninth with a time of 14:50.

“Gillette has a team that should easily be ranked top ten in the country for the men’s and women’s,” Lara said. “Their coach has recruited four runners from Kenya, two guys and two girls; they will be tough be beat in any meet however our number one runner Clay was only 19 seconds behind the winner. He ran great for his first race as a CWC runner.”

In the women’s division Kate Kling led the Rustler team placing eighth with a time of 19:11 followed by Abby Soliday with a time of 19:41.

“They both ran well; Abby has been getting over an injury she has had for three weeks and Kate is just getting over a virus. They will keep improving,” Lara said.

“Rest of the team needs to get in better shape for us to contend and with this being first race of the season more experience will help,” Lara said.