Lindsley second, Hornets fourth at Russellville 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).
RUSSELLVILLE — The Bryant Hornets rode another runner-up finish by Luke Lindsley to a fourth-place finish at the Russellville Cyclone Invitational on Saturday.
Twenty teams and 237 runners competed in the race. Russellville won the meet with a total of 47 points, followed by Lake Hamilton (70), LR Catholic (106), Bryant (110), and Cabot (127).
Lindsley completed the course in a time of 16:27, which was just 7 seconds behind Jerry Melnyk of LR Central, who is the defending 7A-Central Conference champion.
Rodrigo Rodarte also earned a top 20 medal for the Hornets with a 12th place finish in a time of 17:24, which is a new personal record. Jesse Wolf ran a season best time of 17:59 to place 23rd, with Michael Smith (42nd in 18:38), Kevin Nalley (44th in 18:39), Josh Pultro (83rd in 19:37), Peter Alverio (103rd in 19:59), Tyler Nelson (107th in 20:06), Dylan Ball (112th in 20:12), and Luke Stripling (128th in 20:48) rounding out the Hornets’ top 10 finishers.
“This was our best team performance of the season,” commented Hornets coach Steve Oury. “Luke once again ran a super race and just came up a little short. This is the first time we’ve seen Central this year, but we knew Melnyk is a very good runner. Luke finished almost a minute behind him here last year, so to push him to the end this year shows how far he has come.
“Rodrigo set a personal record for the third meet in a row, and that is significant because this was not a fast course,” added the coach. “It has hills and bumpy footing.
“Jesse Wolf is starting to round in to form, as is Michael Smith and Kevin Nalley. We showed some improvement this week and I think we are on the right track.”
The Bryant Junior Hornets were without the services of top runner Tyler Purtle, who is battling a leg injury. The team finished 4th in the junior boys division which included 14 teams.
Lake Hamilton won the race with a total of 63 points, followed by Russellville (77), LR Catholic (85), Bryant (105), and Cabot (164).
Clifton Hampton was the top Junior Hornet, placing 11th in a time of 12:08. The rest of the Bryant top 10 included Austin Middleton (15th in 12:17), Dru Wen (24th in 12:29), Nick Ballew (27th in 12:40), Spencer Adami (28th in 12:41), Bryan Flores (34th in 12:53), Charlie Terry (37th in 12:56), Chance Levinson (39th in 12:58), Alex Hunt (40th in 12:58), and Mark Winn (60th in 13:21).
“We missed having Purtle out there today, but the main problem we had was a poor start,” Oury observed. “We got a bad place on the starting line and with the first 300 meters going straight uphill and narrowing, it is important to get good position early. We were playing catch up from the beginning, and that’s a tough way to compete.
“The guys competed very hard, and I expect that we will be much closer to the teams who finished ahead of us next week at the Lake Hamilton Invitational at Oaklawn Park.”
The Lady Hamilton Invitational is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 9.
