Wyoming HS Cross Country Spotlight: Kendall Tietjen

The Buffalo High School girls’ cross country program has enjoyed a good start to its 2019 season. One reason is sophomore Kendall Tietjen.

Ms. Tietjen is part of a very talented, but young Buffalo roster, along with Lexi Rule, Alaina Gross, Elizabeth Farris, Cantrell Rosalez, Gabrielle Grabin, and Margaret Olson.

Tietjen took seventh place as a freshman as the 2018 state cross country championships. Her time was 19:50.20 and helped the Bison finish third as a team last year.

Now in 2019, Tietjen is looking for more. She’s already won two races this season, the Douglas River Run (Sept. 7.) and the Big Horn Invitational (Sept. 13). She was runner-up to her teammate Lexi Rule at the season-opening Buffalo Invitational (Aug. 30).

WyoPrep’ David Settle had a chance to catch up with Buffalo coach Sandy Moon and Ms. Tietjen to discuss her season-to-date. Coach Moon talked about Kendall’s start to the season, what she attributes the success to, plus what they’ll be doing to get ready for the state meet next month. The discussion continued with Kendall spoke about her early success, her competitive nature, her goals coming into this season, as well as an outlook toward the state competition. Settle also asked Ms. Tietjen about competing against and with Rawlins standout Sydney Thorvaldson, who receives most of the spotlight in Wyoming girls’ cross country running. All this is part of the audio-video piece above.

Through the early portion of the season, Kendall Tietjen’s best time was a mark of 20:30.76, which she recorded at last weekend’s Michelle Ludwig Invitational in Sheridan. That was good for 10th-place among a field of 52 varsity runners.