The Bryant Cross Country teams will host their annual Hornet Invitational on Tuesday evening at Mills Park. There will be four division races with the junior girls’ two-mile race kicking off the meet at 4:30 p.m. Following the junior girls, will be the junior boys’ two-mile, seniore girls’ 5K, and then the senior boys’ 5K. Currently, there are 25 teams entered with over 650 individual runners registered.[more]
The senior girls race will feature four teams ranked in this week’s overall top 10 state rankings. Fourth-ranked Russellville will come in as the favorite to win the team title based on their top three returning runners from last year’s team. All three finished in the top 20 at the 2008 State meet. The Lady Hornets enter the meet ranked sixth in the state, with Cabot ranked ninth , and Mt. St. Mary ranked 10th.
The Lady Hornets will toe the starting line sending out a very young and inexperienced team. Ninth-grader Hannah Raney looks to be Bryant’s leader going in based on her margin of victory at the intrasquad race. The rest of the Lady Hornets’ lead pack should be made up of sophomores Stacy Emmerling, Kaitlyn Nickels, Ashley Lessenberry, and Skylar Oswalt along with juniors Dylan Vail and Lauren Rogers as well as senior Samantha Cyz.
The senior boys race will feature two teams ranked in the top 10. Russellville is ranked second in this week’s poll with Marion ranked ninth. The Cyclones will definitely be favored to win the team title, but the Hornets look to defend their home turf and pull a huge upset. Junior Luke Lindsley leads the way for the Hornets, with seniors Jacob Clark, Dillon Rhodes, Logan Howard, and Colton Klaus being the top contenders to fill out the Hornet top five.
