The boys and girls Cross Country teams started their season at the second annual Spring Hill Invitational held at Spring Hill stadium on Saturday, August 29th. The varsity girls kicked off the morning races on the grassy three mile course followed by the varsity boys. Sophomore Paige Maly paced the Ladynecks with a ninth place finish in 20:36 followed by Jessica McNew, 20:45, in 19^th place. Sydney Hamm and Brianne Mathews finished in 20^th and 21^st in a time of 20:57. Shandee Lynn rounded out the team scoring with a 36^th place finish in 22:44. Elizabeth Horne finished in 23:58 with a 53^rd place finish. There were 76 runners in the varsity girls race and the Ladynecks finished fifth in the team standings with 105 points.

Senior Dylan Rogers led the boys team this week with a ninth place finish in the boys race that saw 111 runners compete. Rogers completed the three mile course in 16:46. He was followed by freshman Austin Jordan in 30^th with a time of 17:52.

The junior varsity boys also competed on the same three mile course as the varsity. Clay Hunter finished in eleventh place in a time of 19:45 followed by Jimmy McNew in 47^th with a time of 21:50. Thien Vuong ran a 22:10 for a 54^th place finish. The junior varsity boys division saw 110 runners compete in the race. The junior varsity girls finished off the morning races on a similar two mile course. Lauren Berry finished in 15^th with a 14:42 pace over the course. Brittani Pfau finished in 16:12, 42^nd place, out of 106 runners.

All of the runners competed well for their first meet of the season. The teams began training in early August, and have long awaited a meet to break up their training schedule. The teams will travel to the University at Tyler to compete in the Tyler Lee Country Classic on Saturday, September 5^th . This is one of the biggest meets of the season with several high school races as well as a college division. The course is a relatively flat and grassy and the runners will face some hills as they wind through the campus terrain. The races will begin at 10:00 with the varsity girls division followed by the varsity boys and junior varsity runners.