The Raider cross country teams ran two races last week, at Omak last Tuesday and at home last Saturday.

Both the boys’ and girls’ teams saw great improvement, with everyone running season- or career-best at one or both races.

“With the girls’ team, the entire group showed improvement from previous performances, led by Alexia Hanway, Mary Ann Matheson and Rickyna Sam,” Head Coach Gary Darnold said. “With the boys’ team, Lukas Hermetz, Oscar Pakootas, and Kendall Piccolo had breakthrough races, drastically improving on practice times this season.”

Both races last week were 3-mile courses, 200 meters shorter than state competition.

At Omak, Hermetz ran an 18-minute, 44-second race, then improved to a 18:11 at the home meet, taking 10th overall.

At the Lake Roosevelt Invitational on Saturday, Pakootas trimmed off more than 40 seconds from his Tuesday time at Omak, finishing in 19:45, a career PR over two minutes faster than his time last year at the home race.

Zach Erickson is again the “Most Improved Raider” runner as this week his time of 21:15 was over three minutes faster than last year.

On the girls’ side, Hanway continues to lead the way for the Raiders with times of 23:00 at Omak and 22:38 at home. Mary Ann Matheson is starting to get into state form by cutting off three minutes in a week. Matheson’s time at the CAN-AM race was 26:31, her time at home was 23:09.

Charli Knight, Rickyna Sam, and Clare Castrodale recorded career PRs at Omak, while Keya Fasthorse improved to seasonal PRs at both races. Amanda Palmer ran for a career PR at the home race, recording a time of 26:13 — a two-minute improvement over her previous best.

Republic boys won the LR Invite, followed by Wellpinit, LR, Pomeroy and Tonasket. St. John’s girls won that event, followed by LR and Tonasket. See full results for both races at http://ow.ly/elJua.

The Raiders will travel this Saturday to the Oroville Invitational, where high school races start at 12:30 p.m. This will be the last tune up before the district meet at Liberty Bell Oct. 20. At Oroville the Raiders will be racing against B competition from state-ranked Liberty Bell, Oroville, Republic and against 1A teams from Tonasket, Chelan, and Newport.

“With nine schools attending,” Darnold said, “the boys will get to see an important league opponent in Liberty Bell, and the girls will get to see how we match up against Oroville.”