Lady Hornets run away with top team honors at Russellville Invitational
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 Hornet cross country team delivered a dominating performance at the Russellville Cyclone Invitational Saturday morning giving them their third invitational title of the season. Bryant put four runners in the top 14 places scoring 50 points, 41 points better than runner-up Lake Hamilton’s 91 points. Russellville took third with 96 points and Van Buren was fourth with 99 points. There were 13 full teams and 178 total runners in the race.[more]
“These ladies just keep surprising me every week,” stated Lady Hornets coach Danny Westbrook. “Every one of our top seven runners ran a season-best time. By the middle of the race, it was obvious that we were dominating the team competition.
“These girls have learned the strategy to success which, in our case, is simply go to the front of the race from the start, stay there, and finish there,” he added. “We can still improve on the time gaps that we have between our scoring runners, but if we stay healthy and keep improving this team can be pretty good.”
Sophomore Hannah Raney turned in her best performance of the season by finishing second with a time of 20:23. Raney, who has led the Lady Hornets and finished no worse than fourth in her three races this fall, said she could have run faster.
“I was pleased, but my goal is to run under my personal record of 19:58,” Raney said. “I was a little disappointed, but I did the best I could.”
Stacy Emmerling continued her streak of top 10 finishes with her eighth place finish at 21:32. Senior Lauren Rogers finished in 11th place with a time of 21:42. Completing the scoring five for Bryant was freshman Marley Adams (14th, 21:50) and Ashlyn Lessenberry (23rd, 22:26). Skylar Oswalt took 30th place in 22:41 and Kat Bolton was 33rd in 22:47.
“Our top five scorers ran great this week,” Westbrook said. “I was also pleased to see freshman Kat Bolton up toward the front. Stacie Waite, Mikayla Douglas, Skylar Combs, Rachael Newman, and Caroline Bock all turned in gutsy performances today as well.”
Meanwhile, in the junior high division of the meet, Bryant finished fifth with 131 points. Cabot won the team title with 71 points, followed by Russellville with 87 points, LR Christian with 108 points, and Van Buren with 126 points. There were 20 full teams and 249 total runners in the race.
Lindsey Butler led Bryant and earned a top 20 medal with her 16th place finish in 14:18. Jenna Freeman finished in 28th place with a time of 14:59. Caitlyn Bell finished in 30th place in 15:00. The scorers for Bryant also included Sarah Cowell (35th, 15:11) and Megan Hodge (39th, 15:16).
“Our junior girls are improving,” Westbrook commented. “We got out a lot better at the start in this race, but now we have to work at maintaining that position through to the finish.”
Bryant will next compete at the Lake Hamilton Invitational held in the infield of Oaklawn Park Race Track next Saturday.
