Running through the snow and frigid temperatures

WORLAND — Holding to their motto of “running isn’t canceled,” the Worland High School cross-country runners finished their season at the 3A State meet in Afton on Oct. 23.

“We made it through the season. It was better than 2A and 4A; I won’t complain about that,” said WHS cross-country Tanya Kienlen when talking about the weather in Afton. “I think it was a wise choice for us to leave early. Although, it was kind of a bummer because we were supposed to have that team day, but for the second time, it got canceled. It worked out, though, we rescheduled it for Monday before our banquet.”

Winning the boys meet were the Lander Tigers, who won rather convincingly with a score of 45. Star Valley finished second, scoring 118 and Lyman was third with 128. The Warriors finished sixth as a team with 159.

On the girls side, the Cody Fillies repeated by the slimmest of margins. The Fillies edged out the Buffalo Lady Bison, 87-90, by three points to keep the 3A State title in Cody. Star Valley came in third with 102 while the Lady Warriors were 10th with 278.

Individually, Rawlins’ Sydney Thorvaldson made it a clean sweep for her career, winning her fourth 3A State title, finishing with a time of 16:59.6. Next fall Thorvaldson will run for Arkansas University, who won the National Championship in 2019. For the boys, Star Valley’s Pete Visser won his third consecutive 3A title, crossing the finish line at 15:48.76.

The Warriors top three finishers were Jack Bishop (23rd, 18:27.1), Marcus Wiley (25th, 18:33.9)

and Boe Nichols (29th, 18:39.1). For the Lady Warriors, Carly Venable finished 23rd (21:57.1), Lindsey Holiday 54th (23:12.9) and Brooke Flock 56th (23:38.8).

On top of the tougher competition, this was also the first time Worland ran against this large of a field. This would be nothing new in seasons past, but with COVID-19 rules, meets were much smaller this season.

The 3A State Meet was not plagued with as much snow as the 2A and 4A meets, but the Worland runners still had to battle through a tough course in Afton. Having run it last season and earlier this season, each Worland runner set personal records, and the Warriors kept to their impressive pack time.

“The weather held out for us, and even though we didn’t make it into the top five or three. Looking back at our previous times, all of my kids walked away 35 to 40 seconds from last year. There was definitely growth from where we were at.

“It is a super tough course, and kudos to anyone who runs that. We still had the tightest pack time, on the boys side, that anyone has had in a long time. I had a lot of coaches come through and say, ‘If one Worland kid comes through, just expect four more.’ It was a compliment on our side to see that tight of a pack,” said Kienlen. “I really felt like the girls really put it out on the line. It was really a great weekend, and I’m proud of them for pushing through it.

Kienlen added, “It was cool to see the whole cross-country family cheering for Sydney and watching her succeed. Then seeing how strong the Lander team came out and supporting them, Wyoming as a state supports cross-country and notices the talent in our state.”

Kienlen was also impressed by the leadership of her senior Lady Warriors and excited about her younger runners gaining valuable state experience.

“Knowing that I had three senior girls who were strong scorers for our team, they just realized it was their last race, so they didn’t hold back and put everything out there. That’s what you want from strong leaders like that. We will have a lot of young ones returning and getting to experience state and see what it’s like was great for them,” said Kienlen.

This year’s senior Warriors and Lady Warriors stepped up in ways that were much appreciated by Kienlen. Not only did this year’s seniors fill in the traditional roles of motivating teammates and providing examples of determination, they also provided excellent leadership with all the COVID rules.

“It’s always hard to let go of strong senior leaders and ones who have definitely taken ownership of the program. They led their teammates in warmups, meets and practice. It was so exciting to watch them fight at state,” said Kienlen.

The changes to the cross-country season due to COVID were many, but having a shot at a season meant more to the Worland runners than any of the added rules. They were more than willing to do whatever it took to make sure this season saw a proper conclusion.

As if COVID hanging over the season wasn’t enough, there was the possibility of the state meet being moved up if the situation called for it.

All of this, along with just being cross-country, just added to the Worland runners mental toughness.

“We had to be flexible, and the kids adapted to that, as well as the parents who rearranged work schedules to be such huge supports for our kids,” said Kienlen. “It was almost shocking because you thought it might not happen, but we did it, and it was nice to get through a full season,” said Kienlen. “Compliments to the runners at state they were all masked up at the line — they were very strict at state, and the kids were resilient for that knowing how important the season was to them.

There were plenty of highlights from the 2020 season, the Warriors winning their sixth-straight 3A East conference championship being among them. And for Kienlen having a full season, her runner’s willingness to roll with anything and the team’s friendly but competitive drive among each other.

“I can’t emphasize enough our inter-squad competition; we’ve become so strong because of it. Then their positive mindset and being thankful that we had a season,” said Kienlen. “All season we talked about running is not canceled, and we were super grateful to have a whole season and have everyone compete. I also wanted to instill that love of running and the mentality that you can always go for a run by yourself.”

Both the Warriors and Lady Warriors bring back plenty of talent for 2021, led by Jack Bishop and Carly Venable. Training in the summer will be vital to the team’s success, and now all Kienlen is hoping for is a normal summer to hit the ground running next season.

“The ones that are returning are serious and want to bring more hardware home. We’ve talked about the importance of summer training, especially when you don’t know what’s going to happen. And now they’re more willing to get together and create that opportunity,” said Kienlen. “Now, we’re hoping that our summer will look different so that they can get together more often.”