Off-day for Lady Hornets still garners second-place finish
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HOT SPRINGS — The Bryant Lady Hornet cross country team finished runner-up at the Lake Hamilton Invitational held Saturday on the infield of Oaklawn Race Track. Bryant had previously won all three of their invitational meets, but could not overcome the Batesville Lady Pioneers, who avenged an earlier loss to the Lady Hornets at the Conway Invitational. Batesville took the title with 53 points. Bryant scored 75 points. Ruston, Louisiana finished third with 82 points. There were 16 total teams and 214 runners in the race.[more]
“Batesville is a very good team,” commented Lady Hornets coach Danny Westbrook. “They are well coached and have a lot of talent, but we ran really flat today. It was not our best team effort. The only excuse I can think of for the poor performance would be that we started our speed training this week, and our girls may have been feeling the effects of that.
“Our overall times pretty well reflect that,” he continued. “This time of year you have to do speed work to start preparing for the big meets at the end of the season, and that means sometimes racing on trashed legs.”
Hannah Raney continued her streak of top four finishes on the season by taking third in 20:52. Stacy Emmerling finished 13th in 22:13. Freshman Marley Adams was Bryant’s third runner finishing in 15th place in 22:16 with Skylar Oswalt finishing close behind in 16th place in 22:18. Freshman Mikayla Douglas finished out the scorers for the Lady Hornets at 32nd place 23:22. Ashlyn Lessenberry (34th, 23:27) and Lauren Rogers (37th, 23:27) finished out Bryant’s top seven.
“I thought Skylar Oswalt and Mikayla Douglas really stepped up today,” Westbrook said. “Mikayla is a freshman and this was the first time she has been in our top 5 this season.”
Next Saturday, the Lady Hornets will head to Fayetteville to compete at the annual Chile Pepper Cross Country Festival.
