Cross country team competes

The heat of the day caused beads of sweat to drip down the sides of their faces as they waited at the start line for that pop of the gun to sound. But neither the nerves nor the heat stopped Lincoln County cross county runners from improving their times on Saturday at the Larry Burgess Invitational at Sunset Park in Las Vegas.

Jesse Mathews improved his running time by a full minute as he ran an 18:05. ?His time launched him into the position of the fastest male in our Southern DIII League,? said coach Lacey Person. ?Very strong for his first year.?

The personal records didn?t stop there. Cody Dirks improved by two minutes as he finished in 20 minutes. Sophomore Ben Culverwell ran a 20:03 in his first race of the season. Tyler Frehner also improved by a minute, running a 20:46. Michael Winters improved by two minutes, running a 20:52. Junior Samuel Barfield ran a 21:10 in what was also his first race of the year. Freshman Lincoln Frehner also ran for the first time finishing in 21:10. Carlin Christensen improved one minute in his run time of 21:14. Max Bowen improved by forty seconds with a time of 22:05.

Another newcomer to the team is freshman Wesley LeBaron. He completed the race with a time of 24:50. Another freshman and newcomer, Hayden Showell, ran a time of 32:44.

Girls runners also improved. Madi Mathews finished the race in 22:51, placing her first among Division IV runners. Pearson praised Mathews, who is the sole runner from Pahranagat Valley for being able to do each day?s workout on her own. ?She is doing an outstanding job of that.?

Shayla Mathews improved by one minute in her time of 26:30. Her time ranks her seventh among Division III runners.

Ally Wadsworth ran a 32:12, improving by two minutes.