If you are a cross-country runner, it is better to be sick sooner rather than later.

Battered by illnesses sweeping through his team, coach Jesse Jermyn said his Plains harriers still competed admirably in the Mountain West Invitational in Missoula Saturday, in spite of the ongoing cases of the crud.

Perhaps the sickest of all Plains runners Saturday, John Owen Jermyn, the defending State B cross country champion, almost sat out the race before finally deciding to run and finishing a very respectable 32nd in 16:42.7.

Still sick himself but more recovered than his teammate, Cord Greer, the third place winner in last year’s State B meet, finished a team-best 12th in the field of 461 runners for the Horsemen, completing the 5K in 16:28.7.

Coach Jesse Jermyn said Greer was the sickest one on the team the week before when Plains teams competed in the Bozeman Invitational, but that his son John Owen replaced Greer on the sickest one on the team list in Missoula.

As a result he may have John Owen sit out this week’s Thompson Falls Invitational in preparation for the rest of the season, he said.

“It’s better to be sick now rather than later but we have been having a pretty rough time these last few weeks,” coach Jermyn said. “We seem to be getting better but will play it by ear the next few weeks as to how much we want to push kids.”

Sick or not, Plains had a bunch of runners competing in Missoula Saturday.

In the girls JV race, Emmy Russell (25:04.5) and Annika Ercanbrack (25:45.2) both finished strong, as did Finnian Ercanbrack (21:50.1), Bryan Lakko (21:55.7) and Riley Geenen (22:21.0) in the boys JV event.

In the middle school boys race, Jace Russell finished the 1.3 mile course in 8:40.7, Louis Jermyn ran it in 9:47.5 and Mason Marton 10:23.8.

In the middle school girls race, Pearl Ferlen (12:24.9), Lianna Loveall (12:29.9) and Dillyn Doble (12:54.9) all finished strong for Plains.