MOUNTAIN HOME — The Bryant Hornets battled the hills and heat of Mountain Home Saturday to earn a ninth place finish in the Class 7A State Cross Country Championships. Bryant scored 229 points to finish behind team champion Bentonville (85), Fayetteville (94), Rogers (99), Conway (118), Russellville (132), Cabot (142), Rogers Heritage (147), and Sprindale Har-ber (215).
Luke Lindsley again led the way for the Hornets with a seventh place finish in a time of 17:19, earning a top 10 medal and All-State honors along the way.[more]
"I can't say enough about Luke Lindsley's race,” declared Hornets coach Steve Oury. “He ran it to perfection. With the heat and the hills, we knew that anyone who ran the first half of the race too hard would risk falling apart in the second half, so we wanted to hang back and really pick it up on the second loop. He moved from about 25th place early in the race to about 15th at the half-way point, then started picking people off. Just a great performance. He beat several runners he has never beaten before and was the second finisher from the 7A Central conference. He also earned a spot in the Arkansas-Oklahoma All-Star Meet next Saturday in Fayetteville."
Behind Lindsley, the rest of the Hornets top five included Jacob Clark (44th in 18:50), Logan Howard (46th in 18:41), Rodrigo Rodarte (63rd in 19:12), and Dillon Rhodes (79th in 19:39). A total of 130 runners competed in the 5k (3.1 mile) race.
"I was also really proud of how our seniors competed,” Oury said. “Jacob Clark, Logan Howard, and Dillon Rhodes all gave it everything they had, and they were the reason that we finished as well as we did. I was hoping we could crack the top 10, so finishing 9th was really good for us. It was also nice to see Rodrigo Rodarte step up. He is just a freshman, so I look forward to working with him in the future."
