The Ladynecks and Roughnecks captured the team titles at the Hawkins Invitational Meet held at Hawkins High School. The meet was a good mid-season tune-up for regional competition seeing a flatter, grassy course compared to previous courses. The girls varsity team was led for the second week by Brianne Mathews. Mathews finished in 12:49 for a fourth place finish. Mathews was followed by Morgan Hill in 13:01,7th, Elizabeth Horne, 9th, in 13:09 and Nour Hussein in 10th with a time of 13:10. Lauren Berry returned to action with a good finishing time and in the team’s fifth spot in 14:26 for 31st place. Alyssa Mathews also return to action this week in 69th place in a time of 16:36. The team won with a score of 42 points. The boys captured their first team title with a score of 66 points, led by Clay Hunter’s fourth place finish in 18:08. Hunter was followed by Austin Jordan in ninth place,18:29, and Jonathan Spedowski in 12th with a time of 18:48. The remaining runners did well racing together this week for a good portion of the race. Greyson Jones, 30th, and Mason Malone, 31st, finished neck-and-neck in 20:07 and 20:08 to score for the team. Carter Tackett and Chase Robinson also raced better to improve the team performance. Tackett finished in 5k course 20:56, 48th, and Robinson 21:21, 54th out of 54 runners.

The Junior Varsity race saw three runners compete. Blake Warren just missed out on a medal with his 14th place finish in 20:32. Drew Frazier finished in 24th place with a time of 22:08 and Bryson White finished in 25:38 for 49th place.

The Junior High teams also saw some racing action and their times improve from last weekend. Clay McNesse led the boys team finishing in ninth place in 11:56. Logan Rowe raced to 50th place in 13:36. He was followed by Connor Weeks in 57th for a time of 14:01. Jeremy Patak and Cade Palmer used some team running to help each other this week. Patak finished in 70th place in 14:32, Palmer finished in 78th place, 14:46. Braden Fears also saw his time improve from last week and raced better this week. Fears finished in 16:01 in 105th place.
The girls team also improved their times from the Pine Tree meet. Monika Owens had a great race and led the girls again this week with a tenth place finish in 13:50. Owens was followed Jaci Wallace, 40th, 15:40, Savanna Ogden, 49th, 16:23, and Bella Sacco, 52nd, 16:30. In her first race Jessica Patak ran a time of 17:44 for 70th, Maddie Williams raced to 78th place in 18:30, and Shyanne Troxell 79th in 18:45. All the junior high runners raced better and more competitively this past weekend. They are learning how to race as a team and maintain their pace better throughout the course of the race. This experience will be valuable for the District competition at the end of this month.

We will travel to Hallsville for the infamous “Running of the Cows” at Jimmie Hunt’s farm in Hallsville. The High School teams will compete Friday, October 7th, starting at 8:45 with the girls race. The Junior High teams will compete Saturday, October 8th, starting at 9:00 with the girls race. The course is grassy with some rolling hills and a challenging incline at during the last 800 meters of the race. We hope to see you there.