Saratoga Middle-High School hosts The Shana Ward Memorial Invitational

The population of Saratoga increased by over 20% last Friday afternoon. Just for a few hours and all in the form of cross country athletes from high schools around Wyoming. Twenty teams, with 418 runners, were entered in the Shana Ward Memorial Invitational held at the Saratoga Inn and Resort golf course.

The day was ideal for running, with temps in the mid 60’s. There was something of a breeze - generally not a great thing for distance runners, but the trees of the corse helped keep that in check. The 5000 meter, or 3.2 mile, course is classified as ‘flat & fast’ by the cross country community, which makes new personal records achievable. The Shana Ward has a reputation as a meet where those PRs can be had. And, it is known too as a good place to springboard into the second half of the season.

Ally Wheeler from Natrona HS claimed the gold in the girls varsity, and Alex Louria won the boys side. Ally opened a lead of over a full minute on the 2nd place finisher, her teammate Ashley Gross. Natrona had three of the top five finishers in the girls varsity event. Alex won by a much narrower margin over his teammate Micah Colling. Kelly Walsh runners claimed three of the top five boys varsity positions.

Saratoga High School had four runners in boys high school varsity, two in JV and four at the middle school level. They also had four runners compete in the middle school girls division. The middle schools ran a 2 mile course. Jett Arney was the top middle school boy at 12:50, good for 10th place. Sihauna Sanchez had a strong finish with the middle school girls at 13:30 and 6th place. Bennet Keel led the SHS varsity boys with a time of 20:31, closely followed by teammate Tyler Greenberg at 20:56. The top JV runner was Elijah Williams in 24:04.

In addition to being proud of every runner on his team, in comments to the Sun, Coach Hohnholt said “First and foremost I want to thank all of you who helped in our hosting of the Shana Ward Memorial Invitational. Having so many people volunteering their time and talents is the only way you can host these types of events. We hosted 418 athletes and twenty teams on Friday and you only do that through strong community involvement. A big shout out goes to the Saratoga Inn and Resort who graciously let us use their facilities every year to host this event. The course looked wonderful and coaches and spectators commented on its beauty”. The Shana Ward Memorial is a very special event for the cross county community, the school and the town.