Bomengen, Hunt and Weyer go first, second and third at Bobcat Invite

THERMOPOLIS - The Hot Springs County cross-country team finished their homecoming week with a bang. Hosting the Bobcat Invite on Sept. 30, the Lady Bobcat sophomore trio of McKenna Bomengen, Tahja Hunt and Olivia Weyer finished first, second and third respectively.

"It was pretty good. I thought we could finish in the top five, but went one, two three instead. It was a huge surprise for Olivia to finish third, which was awesome, but definitely overall it was an awesome meet for us," said HSCHS cross-country coach Stephanie Metz.

Bomengen was first with a time of 21:29.20, Hunt second, 21:58, and Weyer ran a 22:02.97 to finish third, a career finishing position for her.

Finishing first through third goes to show these Lady 'Cats are not resting on their laurels any time soon. In fact, they are out to prove they are even better this season than they were last season.

"I think they don't want to live in the shadow of Jules Ward [a senior in 2016 who helped guide the team to their second-place finish at state and one of the program's most decorated runners]. Also, they want to prove they're just as good as last year's team. After every meet they're asking how they finished compared to last year because with each course being different the best way to see if you've improved is to compare last year's times.

"Last year Tahja ran a 22:30, now she's a 21:58. Just looking at last year's times to now, that's what's motivating them the most. Like when Olivia saw that she was a 23:22 last year and dropped down to a 22:02 that's her drive. For them, it's like alright I know what the pain feels like and I know what the glory feels like," said Metz.

Helping the team improve has been Weyer, who was consistently a top 25 finisher in 2016 and now has made the leap into a top 10 finisher. Metz credits Weyer for her hard work and being able to transfer what she does in practice to each race for making the leap this year.

"She beat Tahja in Worland and that was huge for her. When I came into this role I was told by parents that Olivia was a solid runner. She practices with the other two and she's never behind by a considerable amount and she does really well with them in practice. When she started to make her way closer and closer to the front and when she finally beat Tahja in Worland, it was like alright, she's figured out how to compete," said Metz.

The fourth Lady 'Cat, freshman Dayna Sandberg, finished fourth with a time of 26:53.51 and senior 'Cat runner Hudson Roling was fourth, clocking in at 18:35.56.

For their regular season finale the Bobcat and Lady Bobcats travel to Powell for the Powell Invitational on Friday. While the Powell course is faster than the Thermopolis course, Metz will still have her team doing some hill training, since Thermopolis will be the site of the 3A East conference meet on Oct. 13.

"Powell is a faster course and it's a bit like Billings with a tiny hill. We're including our hills with our distance, we're not doing our speed hill training. Just because this is a weird week with the meet on Friday, and that messes up your training schedule but we want to stick to it as much as we can so we're not losing our intensity," said Metz.

As for the goals this week in Powell, Metz would like to see her runners continue with their strong performances as well as get one more look at Cody before the state meet on Oct. 21.

"Primarily we'll be looking at top five. We'll see Cody again, so that will change some things. I'd like to see McKenna in the top three and we'll see if we can go 3-5. There will be some new teams we haven't seen which will be good for us. It's hard for me still being a new coach because I haven't seen some of these teams, I've looked at their times on Mile Split, but getting to see how our runners compete against them will be nice," said Metz.