Lady Hornets capture second title in a week
EDITOR’S NOTE: Because the look back at each day in Bryant athletic history has been so favorably received during the time when there was no sports during the COVID-19 shutdown, BryantDaily.com will continueposting past stories of Bryant athletics either posted on BryantDaily.com (from 2009 to the present) or published in the Bryant Times (from 1998 to 2008).
CONWAY — The Bryant Lady Hornets took their second consecutive meet championship at the Conway Wampus Cat Cross Country Invitational held Saturday at Beaverfork Lake.
Bryant had three girls finish in the top 11 places to win the title with 57 points. Batesville finished runner-up with 90 points. Arlington, Texas was third with 108 points. There were 14 teams and 193 total runners in the race.[more]
“Our senior girls ran awesome today,” said Lady Hornets coach Danny Westbrook. “I am so proud of them. The weather conditions were not ideal, but the girls really showed a lot of mental toughness.
“We beat some really good teams today in Batesville and Arlington, Texas,” he added. “These ladies are a great group to coach. They work hard in practice, they race hard, and they really support each other.”
Lady Hornet sophomore Hannah Raney turned in her second consecutive top five performance finishing in fourth place with a time of 20:45. Senior Lauren Rogers and junior Stacy Emmerling ran together throughout the race and finished together with Rogers in 10th place in 22:02 and Emmerling in 11th place in 22:05.
Skylar Oswalt (18th, 22:44) gave Bryant four team members to collect a top 20 medal. Freshman Marley Adams finished up the scorers for Bryant and narrowly missed a medal by finishing 21st in 23:00. Ashlyn Lessenberry (26th, 23:18) and Kat Bolton (27th, 23:19) finished up the top seven for Bryant.
“Today’s victory was a total team effort,” Westbrook said. “Hannah continues to do her job at the front of the race. She knows she has to go out and run with the leaders every race. Lauren Rogers is our senior leader who is doing a great job holding us together. Stacy Emmerling and Skylar Oswalt had great races today as well.”
In the junior girls varsity race the Junior Lady Hornets finished third with a score of 118 points. Lake Hamilton won the race with 68 points. There were 21 teams and 154 total runners in the race.
Bryant had two girls receive top 20 medals as Lindsey Butler took 15th in 13:40 and Jenna Freeman took 16th in 13:40. Finishing out the top five scorers were Caroline Cato (29th, 14:12), Caitlyn Bell (34th, 14:20), and Sarah Cowell (35th, 14:20).
“Our junior girls continue to run strong,” Westbrook commented. “Our middle school coaches, Coach Deanna Porter and Coach Rhonda Hall, are doing a great job with our seventh and eighth graders. This team is handicapped at the start each week by the fact that three freshman that would be running at the front of their races have been moved up to help the high school team.”
In the junior high junior varsity race, Bryant’s girls won the team title with 38 points. Hailey Levinson won the race with a time of 14:48. The other top five scorers were Shelby Woodall (4th, 14:59), Briana Rutherford (8th, 15:36), Rachel Bacon (9th, 15:37), and Carley Cato (21st, 16:07).
The Bryant teams will return to competition on Saturday, Oct. 2, at the Russellville Invitational.
