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WORLAND - The 2016 cross-country season for Worland High School was another step in the right direction for the program.

The Worland boys won their second straight conference championship and finished fourth at the state meet in Sheridan. The girls team finished fourth at conference and ninth at state. As a whole Worland had three runners earn all-state honors by placing in the top 10. They were junior Jadon Swalstad and sophomores Kelli Holliday and Porter Harman.

Swalstad, Holliday and Harman earned all-conference selections as well.

All season long the team showed a strong commitment to improving and growing together has a team, something that impressed their coach, Tanya Kienlen, very much. "I was impressed with the team unity in the fact that they truly only focused on the positive. The attitudes going into workouts and meets were phenomenal and that started out everything very well. I was pleased with us having three all-staters and had personal records across the board all season long, it goes to show that all their hard work paid off," said coach Kienlen.

One of Kienlen's favorite moments of the season came before they were to start their regular season when the coach took her team to run the old highway. "Our mountain run is tough, when we run the old highway, but I think it's a great bonding moment. You can really see the team come together after that one and hopefully they can also look back on that run and say wow I practically ran a mountain," said Kienlen.

Naibeth Ayungua, Francisco DeMiguel (foreign exchange student), Felicity Loveland, Cody Newell, Brooke Seidel, Tristan Warren and Kylie Woffinden ran cross-country for the WHS program for the last time and coach Kienlen was proud of their contributions to the program. "The hard work they put in this season and their leadership qualities are going to be very much missed," said Kienlen.

For the offseason Kienlen wants to see her returning runners continue logging runs not to necessarily be in season shape but to stay sharp and active. "I'd like to see them get some mileage under them and not a lot but enough so they're just not sitting on the couch. But one of the unique qualities about our sport is they kind of crave that running even when they're done. The grueling pain and the endless workouts bring a satisfaction and that runner's high," said coach Kienlen.

With seven runners graduating and most of them coming from the girls team coach Kienlen will be looking to recruit more runners to the team and believes her current runners will help in that cause. "We do have eighth graders coming up," said coach Kienlen. "The cool part about this, with the strong unity our team is like a family and they're going to work to build the program and make it better. Honestly the athletes themselves are going to do a good job of persuading their friends that they know weren't out for a sport but should be out for a sport to join our team."

Taking pride and bettering the program is exactly what a coach wants to see from his/her players. So when coach Kienlen saw that from her runners this season she stepped back some and let them keep it going. "I think for me as a coach I have learned to step back and let the team facilitate more and allow more ownership on the team's side. Letting them take charge of their workouts and push each other has been great for us this season," said Kienlen.

As for next season the girls team will rebuild around all-state runner Kelli Holliday and the boys team will lose varsity runner Warren but return everyone else including all-state selections Swalstad and Harman.

"We're hungry for more," said Kienlen. "We've closed the gap and have been in fourth place two years in a row as far as the boys team. As a team goal both sides will want to place in the top three and continue to place more kids in the all-state honors position.

Coach Kienlen added, "The thing I enjoy about this sport is it's a life skill that will carry with you. That dedication, mental toughness and relying on teammates and just the awesome fact we get to run. There's a lot of great things that happen in this sport."