Varsity girls finish second; junior high takes top honors at home meet
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Photos courtesy of Scott Dettmer
With almost perfect conditions, the Bryant Lady Hornets competed exceptionally well at the annual Bryant Invitational cross country meet at Bishop Park on Saturday, finishing second with 93 points to Conway’s 39 points.
Bryant placed two runners in the top 20 led by Sydney Wilson who ran a 21:01.40 to place seventh overall. Bree Hood was 12th with a time of 21:26.32.
Greenbrier’s Rachel Barnhardt was individual medalist with Conway runners landing the next four spots led by Lauren Campbell.
Zhania Hall finished 25th for the Lady Hornets running a 23:03.24. The rest of the top seven for Bryant were Kaylin Watts (26th, 23:16.72), Natasha Hobby (30th, 23:40.22), Esmeralda Limon (31st, 23:45.79) and Sarah Rogers (36th, 24:02.26).
“We are still working to get this year pieced back together after the disappointing start with the Minuteman 5K,” said Lady Hornets coach Keith Dale. “I feel we are on track and have made great improvements this season. Every single girl on the team had a season’s best time Saturday with Emilie Gallegos, Noemy Sotelo, Haley Mitchell, and Kaleigh Thomas dropping 4-8 minutes. I couldn’t be more proud of them and how hard they have been working the past month.”
Bryant’s teams will compete at the Conway Invitational at Lake Beaverfork next Saturday.
Junior Girls
The Junior Lady Hornets showed up with victory in their eyes. There were large swarms of hornets crossing the finish line in large packs as the Bryant won the junior girls division with 49 points. Hot Springs Lakeside was second with 67 points.
The Junior Lady Hornets were led by Olivia Orr with a season-best time of 13:01 to earn fifth place overall. Jillian Colclasure just missed making the top 10. Her time of 13:25.63 was good for 11th. Sydney Dettmer was right with her, finishing 12th in 13:27.76. So was Maddie Gallagher who’s 13:29.39 was good for 13th.
Ellie O’Gary led the next Bryant pack of three, taking 16th in 13:59.48. Madison Dettmer was 17th in 14:00.12 and Rachel Buck was 18th in 14:00.73.
“This season, we have been emphasizing pack running and that mindset has paid of for these dedicated runners,” Dale said. “With all of our top seven runners finishing in the top 20, it pays off.
The coach added, “It takes a large group of people to put a cross country meet on. Our parents are so willing to help in any way possible to make this meet the success that it was. If It wasn’t for them, the meet would not have gone as smooth or as efficiently as it did. For this I would like to thank everyone that helped Saturday morning.”
