October 4 in Bryant athletic history: 2009

Lady Hornets ‘pack’ up another meet trophy

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).

RUSSELLVILLE — The Bryant Lady Hornets put six runners in the top 20 to capture their second consecutive meet championship of the season. Following up their team win at the Bryant Invitational on Sept. 22, the Lady Hornets won the Russellville Cyclone Invitational on Saturday, Oct. 3.

The Lady Hornets scored 45 points to take the title over runner-up LR Christian which finished with 62 points. There were 11 teams and 146 total runners in the race.[more]

Bryant was led once again by freshman Hannah Raney who finished in seventh place with a time of 20:39. The rest of the Lady Hornets’ top five scorers finished in a tight pack beginning with Samantha Cyz (11th, 21:28), Stacy Emmerling (12th, 21:28), Lauren Rogers (13th, 21:31), and Kaitlyn Nickels (15th, 21:43). Ashley Lessenberry (20th, 22:25) gave Bryant six girls receiving a top-20 medal. Skylar Oswalt finished out Bryant’s top seven at 28th place in 22:59.

“This was a textbook team performance for us today,” stated Lady Hornets coach Danny Westbrook. “Our girls gave a lesson on how you win a cross country meet. They are really starting to get the concept of pack running and how important it is. When you have a group of runners moving in unison close to the front of a race, it just demoralizes the other teams.

“Hannah Raney did a great job up front for us,” he added. “She just continues to take on the pressure of being the team’s front runner. She is still learning how to push herself during a race and I think she is just going to continue to improve as the season goes along. Her time today is only 25 seconds off the high school girls’ school record and she is only a ninth grader.”

In the junior girls’ race, the Bryant had three runners receive top 20 medals. Bryant finished fourth in the 17-team field. There were 227 total runners in the race.

Leading the way for Bryant was eighth-grader Marley Adams who finished in 10th place with a time of 14:11. Kat Bolton (18th, 14:29) and Mikayla Douglas (19th, 14:33) also claimed top 20 awards.

Paola Marrero (39th, 15:06) and Randie Owens (40th, 15:09) finished out the scoring five.

“Our junior girls continue to race hard and continue to improve each week,” Westbrook said. “We had a 33-second gap between our third and fourth runners today which really hurt our team score. If we can cut that gap down, we can start contending for meet titles.

“I was really excited about Marley Adams today,” Westbrook said. “She ran really strong and aggressive.”

Next up for the Bryant teams will be the Lake Hamilton Invitational this Saturday, Oct. 10, to be held at Oaklawn Race Track.