CHEYENNE, Wyo. (Wyoming News Now) – A typical Athlete of the Week nod usually goes to, well, one athlete that stood out (hence the name of the story). But this time around was a little bit different. This week’s honors went to the entire Central Girls Cross Country team.
They won the state championship for the second year in a row, and their coach Sean Wilde saw a special moment from them the night before the big performance.
“[We were] having our final team meeting before the final dance, seeing them come together, talk to each other. Seniors [were] kind of giving their farewell, and the younger kids saying ‘hey, you’ve been a great example, it’s sad to see you go. Let’s go into this one more time and let’s get it done,’” Wilde said.
Indeed they did get it done. They prevailed over second place Natrona by six points, and the Lady Indians had four finishers in the top ten.
Sydney Morrell (first), Averie Perriton (fourth), Emma Hofmeister (ninth), and Rian Cordell-Reiner (tenth) all put on fantastic performances.
Morrell’s individual state champion performance was nothing short of dominant. She ran a scorching 18:29:79, which beat out the second place finisher by almost 11 seconds.
Morrell said that it was extremely rewarding to see the team’s success after the grind the season brought.
“I’m super happy with how the state meet turned out for the girls and individually. I think that it was honestly super deserved for the girls to take the win for this weekend just because everyone on the team has put in so much work. Our girls have been through so much this season and I just think it was really well deserved,” Morrell said.
Congratulations to the team on a spectacular showing.
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