If, in your wanderings about Boulder, you are approached, and soon passed, by a fast moving pack of young vagabonds, fear not! The throngs of student athletes that can be seen on most weekdays running throughout town are none other than members of Jefferson High School’s cross country team — and unless you yourself aspire to win Montana’s Class B state championship this fall, they pose you no harm.
“It’s really evident to me that these kids are hungry,” said JHS Head Coach Karson Klass. “In all the talks I’ve had with them over the summer, they’ve made clear they expect wins this season.”
The boy’s team won its first state championship since 1992 last year, and it wasn’t particularly close: The Panthers’ top five runners all finished in the top 40, and their 79 team points easily bested second-place Columbus’ 137. The girls’ squad, meanwhile, took seventh, its best finish in nearly two decades.
