What the Community School's girls' cross country team lacks in numbers Mali Noyes makes up for in individual results.
The junior Cutthroat continues to run strong, placing second overall and first in class 1A and the Northside Conference at the Gooding Invitational girls' varsity race on Tuesday. The Cutthroats do not have enough girls to officially qualify as a team.
"Mali probably runs a little better on hilly courses, so for her to run well yesterday on a flat course was a good result," said Cutthroats coach Rick Kapala. "While I don't want to put expectations on her, it's no surprise that she's running well.
"She trains year round, she's a solid athlete and she has aspirations to run well."
Valley's Lisa Romer edged Noyes by 40 seconds with a time of 19 minutes, 50 seconds. Valley, which is a class 2A school, was the top girls' team in the meet, followed by Jerome.
The Community School's second best result in the girls' race came from Marissa Dryer, who finished 44th overall with a time of 24:05, her best of the season.
"Dryer is a young athlete, a young runner and she ran her best time of the season," Kapala said. "It's good to see, hopefully both (Noyes and Dryer) have a spot at making it to the state championships."
The districts, which also act as the qualifier for the state championships, will be held next Thursday in Declo. Noyes won a silver medal in last year's state meet as a sophomore.
The top runner on the Cutthroats boys' team was Mike Matteson, who finished 19th overall with a time of 18:20. Jerome's Troy Tolman won the race in 17:02, helping his team finish second overall behind host Gooding.
Kapala said Matteson has been slowed by an old injury "but my gut feeling is he will be healthy and run a little better next week in districts."
Connor Davis finished second for the Cutthroats and 27th overall with a time of 18:37.
Kapala said the boy's team has a chance to qualify for states if several nagging injuries and illnesses can be overcome. Individuals can also qualify for states.
"We have to get everybody all firing on the same cylinder on the same day," Kapala said. "They're still pretty inexperienced ... but we have a couple younger guys that may a have shot to make it onto the boys team for the state championships."
