Grace Cross Country

 The Grizzly runners have been hard at work through much of the summer months preparing for another season under head coach Jeremy Smith.  The Grizzlies are looking to once again have a successful season capped off with a return to the state meet.  Last year's boys and girls teams were able to accomplish a state appearance and each bring home a third place trophy.  As is common with small schools each team will be made up of a few familiar faces combined with some new ones.  The girls team will return experienced runners Lilly Gilbert and Breanna Heer.  They will be joined by newcomer to the sport Kalli Stoddard.  Those three should show good leadership on the girls team.  The boys team will return three strong runners in Brock Johnson, Jonah Wilkerson and AJ Mejia.  The boys have also added a new runner in Laexin Van Gass whose family moved away after his sophomore year but have returned for his senior year.  Those four boys should lead the men's team that will include some underclassmen.  Many of the runners took part in a summer camp that took place in Island Park and Yellowstone.  They were able to get in some great workouts as well as some fun team building activities.  Rounding out their first week of practice the Grizzlies participated in the second annual “Run to Coach Smith’s House”.  For this run the athletes and coaches ran over the mountain from Grace to Coach Smith's house in Bailey Creek.  The Grizzlies will kick their season off on August 29th at the Terry Jones Invitational in Malad.