DOUGLAS - The Bearcat trial in Douglas, the site of the 3A East Regional cross-country meet, is already a tough course for cross-country runners, then when you add bad weather conditions, it can make for an even tougher challenge. Fortunately, for the Worland and Thermopolis runners they were ready for the challenge as the Lady Bobcats and Warriors won the meet and the Lady Warriors finished in fourth-place.

Lady Bobcat Jules Ward finished in first place and her teammates Tahja Hunt and McKenna Bomengen were second and fourth, respectively. All three earned all-conference honors. For the Lady Warriors, sophomore Kelli Holliday came in third place earning all-conference, teammate Brooke Siedel just missed out on the all-conference team placing 11th. To earn all-conference a runner needs to place in the top 10.

For the Warriors, sophomore Porter Harman ran a 17:55 to win the regional individual championship and senior Jadon Swalstad was fourth with a time of 18:28. While the Bobcats Hudson Roling, fresh off his 3A golf championship, finished in seventh place.

WHS cross-country coach Tanya Kienlen was proud her young runners, Holliday and Harman, and the great races they ran. "It's always exciting when you know that your program is continuing to build."

"The mental toughness was there for sure," coach Kienlen said when talking about her team's day. "We discussed an old quote that we would run the first mile with training, the second with our mental focus, and the third with heart. As cheesy as that sounds, I felt the team gave 100 percent."

Thermopolis coach Brenna Abel was also thrilled for her team's performance Friday night. "We had a good day on a challenging course with windy conditions and the course had a large hill halfway through the race. Our girls team really worked together. Tahja Hunt had a phenomenal race, McKenna (Bomengen) was battling a bug earlier this week but she's on the mend and Jules (Ward) was really strong running away with the win. Also, Hudson Roling is such a competitor with very little training coming off of a spectacular golf season as he was there 3A state champion," said coach Abel.

Next for both squads will be the state meet in Sheridan on Oct. 22.