The cooler mornings finally arrived this weekend and the cross country teams took advantage of it. Racing on a revamped but familiar course the Ladynecks and Roughnecks wasted no time leaving their shoe prints. The Ladynecks started the morning off with personal best performances from Sophie Fisher, 10th, in a time of 13:21 and Maddie Hart, 23rd, for 13:42 out of 106 runners. The varsity boys then took to the 3.1 mile course that saw 120 finishers. The Roughnecks finished in second place out of 14 teams with 47 points behind Gilmer with 44 points. Junior Cooper Tucker led the Roughnecks with a third place finish in 17:51. Tucker was followed by Sophomore Isaak Olvera 6th, 18:33, Niko Soto, 9th, 18:43, and Nathan Stringer, 15th, 19:15. Henrick Rider was 16th in 19:16 and Logan Langewisch was 22nd in 19:43.The JV Roughnecks also had a great day racing. Luke Bueno led all runners in a time of 19:26. Bueno was followed by Cole Jordan in 4th with a personal best time of 19:54 over the 5k course. Nathan Watson, 10th, 21:54 and Emry Morris, 11th, 21:56, also took home some hardware for their efforts. Kaleb Glenn rounded out the team scoring in 22nd place in a time of 24:24 for a second place finish with 48 points. The JV boys race saw 60 runners cross the line. The junior high runners returned to action this week, improving their times with more competitive running. In the girls 3A-4A division, Mia Olvera finished in 18th place with a 14:46 time. Olivia Applegate and Maddie Stout also finished the two mile course in under 16 minutes. Applegate was 33rd in 15:33 and Maddie Stout was 36th in 15:44. Gemma Schwarz celebrated her birthday with a 96th place finish in 18:57. Schwarz was followed by McKenna Paul in 99th place, 19:23. In the boys race, Sutton Spencer took home hardware with his 10th place finish in 12:31 out of 84 runners. He was followed by Patton Breechen who made his debut with a 14:15 finish for 43rd. Samuel Moore, 46th, 14:34, Christian Oynes, 55th, 15:07, Skeeter Maxwell, 68th, 16:00, and Leyton Lincoln, 69th, 16:06 rounded out the team scoring. The junior high boys finished in 5th place with a score of 167.
All runners will return to Union Grove next week, Saturday, October 4th to compete in the District 16-3A meet. This will be the final meet of the season for the junior high runners. The top three teams and top 10 individuals in the varsity races will qualify to race at the Region 2 Championships on October 20th.
RACE SCHEDULE:
8:00 Varsity Girls
8:20 Varsity Boys
8:50 JV Girls
9:15 JV Boys
9:45 JH combined boys and girls
10:45 Awards