Moffat County runners take top spots at Liberty Bell Invite

If the Moffat County High School cross country program was loud and proud in their first race, this weekend saw Bulldogs make an even bigger statement.

MCHS took dual wins in Saturday’s Liberty Bell Invitational at Littleton’s Heritage High School, as Wyatt Mortenson won the boys race and the girls team took the top spot in group rankings for Division 3.

Mortenson’s first race back after recovering from an injury this summer saw him well ahead of the pack on the suburban course, clocking in at 16:18.4, a good 45 seconds ahead of the silver medal finisher, Saratoga’s Grant Bartlett.

The win is the second in a row at the Front Range race for the Hayden runner, cutting 15 seconds from his 2018 time.

Keaton Knez was close behind in 12th place (17:21.2), with Coltyn Terry a few steps behind for 13th (17:29.6). Kale Johnson placed 44th (18:32.6) and Noah Mortenson 54th (18:49.1) with the Dogs’ top five finishers giving the team third place among 23 full teams.

With 70 points for the day, MoCo girls were leaps and bounds in front of the second-place team Berthoud’s 114 with a 1:40 split among the first five across the finish line.

Kelsey McDiffett set the pace with sixth place and a time of 20:47.5, while Alayna Behrman rounded out the race’s top 10 with a 5K personal best 21:09.4.

Adding to the team’s score were Emaleigh Papierski in 13th (21:15), Emma Jones 25th (22:21.4) and Stephenie Swindler 26th (22:27.7).