Lady Hornets second only to hosts at Lake Hamilton meet
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).
HOT SPRINGS — At the Lake Hamilton Cross Country Invitational held on the infield of the[more] Oaklawn Racetrack Saturday, the Bryant Lady Hornets came up one short once again in the team competition. Bryant took runner-up for the third meet in a row losing to the host team, Lake Hamilton.
The Lady Wolves scored 52 points to out-distance the Lady Hornets who scored 72 points. Russellville was third with 94 points followed by Batesville (117), Little Rock Christian (142), Heber Springs (148), and Parkway, La. (171). There were 16 teams and 200 individual runners in the 5K race .
“Lake Hamilton just came out and whipped us today,” said Bryant head coach Danny Westbrook. “Our time gap back to our fifth scorer did improve this week, but Lake Hamilton’s fifth runner was 15th place and ours was 27th place. In cross country you can’t beat a team when that happens.”
Hannah Raney and Stacy Emmerling led Bryant with their fourth and fifth place finishes respectively. Raney ran 20:49 while Emmerling finished at 20:50. Melinda Murdock finished 16th place in 21:45. The rest of Bryant’s top seven were Kat Bolton (22:18), Marley Adams (22:21), Ashlyn Lessenberry (23:21), and Stephanie Cyz (23:44). The top 30 finishers were awarded medals.
“I was really proud of Hannah and Stacy,” Westbrook said. “They worked together the entire race and came through with some good performances.
“We have got to find a way to close up our time gaps back to our fifth scorer to be successful down the road,” he emphasized.
