ETHETE — The MVHS boys cross country team aced the 3A state cross country meet held at Wyoming Indian High School at Ethete last Friday and Saturday.

They entered the race as the 3A West Region camps and took the state course by storm, racking up the first place win.

This win makes the MVHS Buffalos cross country team back-to-back state champions. And the MVHS fans were on a roll Sunday night, meeting the team at the Urie 4-way and giving them a honk-a-thon as they returned to Mountain View.

Monday morning head coach Isaac Kiefer expressed, “…how impressed I am that we were able to defeat schools so much larger than us two years in a row. Winning a 3A state cross country championship is so difficult considering the number of schools that are 4A in other sports that we have to contend with including Evanston and Cody. What these boys and girls did is really impressive.”

All 16 3A teams competed at the 2022 championships.

“The MV boys team scored 71 points defeating Evanston who took second with 89 points and Cody who scored 94,” Kiefer posted Sunday. “Worland rounded out the trophy positions in fourth with a score of 96.”

Owen Burnett again took first place overall setting a new school record in the 5K with a time of 16:04 and earned All State honors. Burnett led the race for long stretches on Saturday in Ethete. Burnett powered through to win by over a half minute over Nathan Stevenson of Green River who took second in 16.37.31. Burnett repeated the first place win following first place at last year’s state meet.

Other outstanding performances for MVHS according to Kiefer include: 14. Cash Henrie; 15. Colt Henrie; 20. Dash Madsen; 21. Tayden Bell; 22. Aidan Salinas; 81. Isaac Tims.

The girls team did not have enough runners to score as a team, Kiefer said, but Caprice Winn highlighted the girls race with a fourth place individual finish and All State honors. Natalee Rudy finished 24th and Kennley Winn finished 40th overall.

“MVHS distance is very proud of these kids,” Kiefer said.