The 4A West Conference Cross Country Meet Comes to the Gem City

Laramie will play hosts to five other schools for the Class 4A West Conference Cross Country Championships Friday at Jacoby Golf Course.

This will be the final race before next Saturday’s state cross country championships in Casper for Class 4A. The girls’ varsity division will run at 2:15 p.m., followed by the boys’ varsity at 2:45 p.m.

Laramie will be running against Evanston, Jackson, Kelly Walsh, Natrona County, and Rock Springs.

The course will be run on the perimeter of Jacoby Golf Course.

Laramie head coach Greg Schabron says it’s a nice course to run.

“It’s a 2-loop course. (It) starts up near the clubhouse, and the teams will start on kind of a downhill towards 30th Street, wrap around the outer perimeter, somewhat, of the golf course, down towards Greys Gable (Road), parallel Greys Gable, and then climb up towards the clubhouse. You get to do it twice, and it is exactly 2,500 meters for each loop.”

Schabron knows the elements, like the wind, will be a challenge for the kids in the race.

“What we like about the course is the gradual uphill near the end actually simulates something that they’re going to have at the state course in Casper. That kind of turned out to be somewhat of an accident, but once we saw that it was there, we decided to incorporate that into the course, as well.”

With this being the last tune-up before state, Schabron said they’ll really use this to narrow down their roster to the top seven runners for the girls and the boys to take to Casper next week.

“Based on this performance, if we have a couple fluttering between (the) seventh and eighth (runner), and we can race seven, we’ll use this as part of that formula, along with their practices, as well.”

Schabron is also excited to see some teams they haven’t so far this season in Evanston, Jackson, and Rock Springs.

Laramie will look to utilize the home course advantage. Schabron said going back to our home meet a couple of weeks ago, “We could not believe how much community support we had (that day). We had the UW teams, their cross country teams cheering us on, we had parents of athletes that had graduated years ago there, track parents that don’t have anybody on the team, and the energy was great. I think the energy that a home crowd can bring will make whatever location the meet is to our advantage.”

If you plan to attend, just know, it is mandatory to wear a mask on the University of Wyoming property, and they are asking fans to maintain social distancing.