Powell High School’s cross country teams made their way down to the southeast corner of Wyoming to see how fast they could run 3.1 miles at the state meet. With many great performances, the girls were able to take home 2nd place while the boys took 5th place.

Held in Cheyenne on Oct. 25, one runner shone at the meet. Following her sister’s footsteps, junior Karee Cooley emerged as the girls’ second state champion in school history with a time of 19:06.50.  

“I knew there were a couple of girls who wanted the win just as bad as I did, and they had also taken the lead ahead of me in previous years,” Cooley said. “I never felt a for sure reassurance that I was going to win, not even 100 yards away from the finish, because I had no idea how far ahead I was.” 

Even though she did win the race by 24 seconds, Cooley didn’t know that until she was done with the race. This led to her having to stay positive throughout all phases of race day.

“The day before, I just focused on my team and having fun, because it was just the ride up,” Cooley said. “Then, during the race, I just tried to stay confident even when I was tired. In the end, I was just happy to know that all the work I put in every day and all summer was for a reason.”

The cross country season consists of about 3 months of training, but Karee also runs on both indoor and outdoor track teams. While also going for runs on her own. 

“Training-wise for the rest of the school year, I will continue to run indoor track and outdoor track,” Cooley said. “Then I will also continue to build my speed and endurance over the summer.”

As Karee is shooting to become an even more talented runner, Coach Ashley Hildebrand was pleased with how she performed and is looking forward to seeing what she can do in the future. 

“I am so proud of Karee, and I thought she had a good chance to be state champion,” Hildebrand said. “She ran well all season and had a strong state meet, and so it’s really exciting that we now have two individual state champions in girls’ cross country.”

Karee’s excellent state meet also led her teammates to place well, exhibiting a great work ethic that helped them do well at state.

“This season we had a great lineup of people who were good runners but also good people,” senior Colin Walker said. “I feel like that was an important piece to why we had a successful season.”

Furthermore, Walker had his best state meet of all four years he has been on the high school team. He placed 15th out of 101 runners with a time of 18:20.10. 

“I was very happy to get the time I got,” Walker said. “And end my running career with a time and place that I was very proud of.”

Walker had an outlook for how he was going to run his race, and he wasn’t going to let anything get in his way.

“I decided that I was going to run this race like it was my last race,” Walker said. “A lot of my family was there to come and see me run, and I didn’t want to let them down, and I think that was a large part of how I performed and how I placed.”

On top of that, Colin wanted to make his team and family proud. As his race went on, he didn’t lose sight of what he wanted to accomplish, and he didn’t let anything get in his way.

“Colin had an amazing day and ended up doing well,” Hildebrand said. “He was ranked 30th going into the meet and then ended up getting 15th overall.”

As a result, Colin left behind his high school running career with great success. However, there was another runner on the girls’ team who had an impressive performance as a freshman, as she got all-state. 

“It felt pretty good to get 10th place,” freshman Anyston Keller said.  “And I was kind of surprised that I was able to do it.”

Keller’s 10th place didn’t come easy, as she worked through some struggles throughout the summer. 

“I was injured over the summer, so I was surprised with how well I did,” Keller said. “I just had to work really hard this season to get where I am now.” 

Anyston wasn’t the only person who felt satisfied with how she did, as her coach was also happy with what she had accomplished. 

“Anyston got tenth place, so she did end up getting all-state,” Hildebrand said. “She definitely had a good state meet and season as a freshman.”

In cross country, all-state goes to runners who get first through tenth place. Making Keller’s achievement something she will remember for many years to come. But as one cross country season ends, another one will start again next year, which can bring along some changes.

“For the next season, we are losing some great seniors,” Hildebrand said. “But I think a lot of our runners will step up and do a good job of filling those spots.”