Lady Hornets garner third consecutive meet title
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HOT SPRINGS — The Bryant Lady Hornet cross country team won its third consecutive meet championship Saturday, Oct. 10, at the Lake Hamilton Invitational held on the Oaklawn Park infield course. The Lady Hornets used their patented “pack attack” strategy to put six runners in the top 15 places to score 44 points.
Their 7A-Central Conference-rival Russellville was runner-up with 84 points and Lake Hamilton took third with 93 points. There were 12 teams and 156 total runners in the race.
On a very wet and muddy course, Bryant’s lead runner, freshman Hannah Raney, ran her best race of the season finishing third overall with a personal best time of 20:23.[more]
Bryant’s pack was led by senior Sammy Cyz who finished eighth in a time of 21:42. The rest of the Lady Hornets’ scoring five finished in consecutive places with Stacy Emmerling 10th (21:55), Kaitlyn Nickels 11th (21:57), and Lauren Rogers 12th (22:00). Ashlyn Lessenberry (14th, 22:22) and Jessica Shepard (22nd, 23:01) finished out the top 7 for Bryant.
Also receiving one of the top 30 medals was Skylar Oswalt, who finished 27th with a time of 23:28.
“Our senior girls are running and racing extremely well right now,” commented head coach Danny Westbrook. “In my entire coaching career, I have had very few teams perform so near to perfect as far as race strategy is concerned.
“Hannah Raney ran an incredible race up front today,” he added. “She went out hard and just looked really comfortable racing with some of the best runners in the state. She beat the top two Russellville girls for the first time today, and that will be huge for us if she can do that at the conference meet in two weeks.
“Sammy Cyz is doing an awesome job of leading our pack,” Westbrook noted. “I am so proud of her. She is able to race again, coming off a hip injury that kept her out since her sophomore year.”
In the junior girls’ race, the Bryant Junior Lady Hornets had four runners receive top 30 medals as the team took third place with 110 points. There were nine teams and 232 total runners in the race. Russellville won the team title with 53 points.
Bryant was led by eighth-grader Kat Bolton who finished ninth with a time of 14:56. Mikayla Douglas (17th, 15:05), Kayla Nickels (21st, 15:12), and Marley Adams (30th, 15:26) also received medals for their top-30 finishes.
Finishing out the top seven were Randie Owens (33rd, 15:37), Stephanie Cyz (34th, 15:39) and Skylar Combs (41st, 16:00).
“I was really proud of Kat Bolton today,” Westbrook said. “She went out hard from the start and ran really aggressive.”
Next up for the cross country teams will be the Chile Pepper Invitational on Saturday, Oct. 17, held at the University of Arkansas Agri Park course in Fayetteville.
