Bryant cross country teams run at diff erent venues

UALR Cross Country

Invitational

The Bryant Lady Hornets and junio Lady Hornets competed in four divisions at the UALR Invitational Saturday.

Senior Girls Seeded Race: In the varsity senior girls 5K race the Lady Hornets finished in 4th place with 122 points. There were 14 teams and 167 total runners. Ruston, La. won the team title with 41 points.

Dylan Vail led the Bryant scoring finishing in 26th place in a time of 22:09 with Lola Fleming finishing close behind in 28th at 22:13. Stacie Waite was third for Bryant at 37th in 22:36. Finishing the scoring five were Katherine Thompson (41st, 22:42) and Jordan Chadwick (55th, 23:16).

Senior girls unseeded

In the senior girls unseeded race, the Lady Hornets won the team championship with a 5-point margin over Morrilton.

Bryant scored 31 points, while the Lady Devil Dog's had 36.

Leading the way for Bryant was Jessica Shepard (3rd, 23:43) and Mary Nance (9th, 24:47). Courtney Hodge (13th, 25:12), Kayla Randolph (14th, 25:17), and Morgan Humbard (17th, 26:34) made up the rest of the scoring five.

"In the varsity race we didn't run very well as a team this week, but we did finish ahead of all the other 7A conference teams. That is a positive, since one of our primary goals this season is to win the conference title. We are going to have to do better up front in races if we want to contend. Our lead runner was 26th place and that just kills you right off the bat. I thought Lola Fleming and Katherine Thompson ran well today. I was also proud of our group in the unseeded division stepping up and winning." - Coach Danny Westbrook

Jr. High Girls Race -

The Jr. Lady Hornets competed without the services of the 7th grade this week due to the 7th grade having their own separate division. Bryant's 8th and 9th grade ladies finished 4th place in their division with 113 points.

Cabot took the team title with 69 points. There were 13 teams and 135 total runners

in the 2-mile race. Eighthgrader

Hannah Raney led Bryant placing 12th in a time of 11:48. Kaitlyn Nickels was close behind at 13th in 11:54. Finishing out the scoring for the junior Lady Hornets were Stacy Emmerling (17th, 12:05), Ashlyn Lessenberry (36th, 12:32), and Maddi Wells (52nd, 13:01).

Seventh grade girls

Lake Hamilton's seventh -grade girls took the team title with 53 points while Bryant finished third with 80 points.

Scorers for Lady Hornets were Kayla Nickels (9th, 12:24), Mikayla Douglas (13th, 12:39), Kara Taylor (16th, 12:57), Miranda Pelzel (22nd, 13:13), and Rachel Bacon (31st, 13:36)

HORNETS

UALR Invitational

In the biggest meet they've competed in this year, the Bryant Hornets earned a seventh place finish in the UALR Invitational at Rebsamen Golf Course in Little Rock on Saturday.

The large number of entrants forced meet organizers to break the senior and junior high races in to multiple divisions.

Twenty-three teams and 201 runners completed the boys seeded race. Conway won the boys division with 29 points, followed by Lake Hamilton (80), Russellville (130), De Queen (140), Cabot (168), Ruston, La. (171), and Bryant (185).

Senior boys seeded

In the boys seeded division, which was comprised of each team's top runners, the Hornets were led by sophomore Luke Lindsley, who placed 29th in a time of 17:44.

Jacob Clark (34th in 17:51), Logan Howard (44th in 18:05), Brandon Mueller (46th in 18:06), Colton Klaus (51st in 18:15), Remell Allen (70th in 18:56), and Jacob Pultro (89th in 19:27) rounded out the Hornets competing in the seeded division.

Senior boys unseeded Bryant dominated the boys unseeded division, scoring 41 points to defeat eight other teams. Daniel Hall led the way for the Hornets with a second place finish, followed by Kevin Nalley (3rd), Michael Smith (7th), Ben Ackley (15th), and Tanner Morris (16th). Times were not available for this race.

"In the seeded race, I thought we competed hard, but we didn't get the start we needed. Our guys were caught in heavy traffic for a lot of the race, which made it difficult to move up in the field. Jacob Clark had an off day, which is going to happen to everyone at times, but he still competed hard. Luke Lindsley ran a super race. He is just going to keep getting better. It was just warm enough to cause problems for some of the runners, and the course is deceptively tough." Coach Steve Oury

"We did a super job in the unseeded race of taking control up front and finishing strong. Daniel Hall is a senior and is starting to step up. Kevin Nalley has really come on in the last couple of races. These guys all work extremely hard, so it was great for them to be able to go out and get the win. We will take next week off and focus on training and then compete in Conway in two weeks." Coach Steve Oury

Junior boys In the junior high boys division, the Hornets earned a second place finish with a total of 101 points. Russellville earned the title with 27 points. The junior Hornets were led by Forrest Fowler (14th place in 10:04). The scoring five was completed by Peter Alverio (15th in 10:05), Brenden Guffey (17th in 10:08), Josh Pultro (28th in 10:27), and Nick Hughes (38th in 10:46). There were 14 teams and 161 runners in the junior boys division.

Seventh-grade boys

The Bryant seventh grade boys earned a second place finish with a total of 80 points. Cabot placed first with 48 points. The Hornets top five consisted of Austin Middleton (10th in 11:03), Nick Ballew (11th in 11:07), Chance Levinson (16th in 11:17), James Allen (25th in 11:37), and Spencer Qualls (26th in 11:40). Nine teams and 106 runners completed the seventh grade boys division.

Russellville Cyclone Cross Country Invitational

With the Sr. High team taking the week off from racing, the Bryant Jr. Lady Hornets took center stage at the Russellville Cyclone Invitational last Saturday.

In the team competition, Bryant put three runners in the top 10 to finish third with 64 points. The junior Lady Hornets were 16 points out of first place.

Russellville won the team title with 48 points. Lake Hamilton was a close second with 51 points.

Kaitlyn Nickels led the Bryant contingent finishing sixth with a time of 14:27. Hannah Raney (seventh, 14:30) and Stacy Emmerling (9th, 14:40) were close behind and also collected individual medals. Finishing out the scoring five was Ashlyn Lessenberry (21st, 15:21) and Skylar Combs (23rd, 15:22).

"Our junio girls just keep improving each week. I was really proud of Kaitlyn, Hannah, and Stacy for getting up into the top 10 this week. We have a huge gap between them and our fouth and fifth runners. If we can reduce that gap, we will be right there contending for team championships." - Coach Danny Westbrook

Next up for the Bryant cross country program is the Conway Invitational on Saturday.

The junior Hornets finished in a familiar position Saturday at the Russellville Cyclone Invitational Cross country meet. For the fourth meet in a row, the Jr. Hornets finished in the runner-up position behind Russellville. Russellville scored 21 points to earn the team title, with Bryant placing 2nd with 74 points. Conway (98), Heber Springs (115), and Lake Hamilton (123) rounded out the top five teams. Ten teams and 167 runners completed. the two mile race.

Three junior Hornets earned medals for finishing in the top 20. Forrest Fowler placed 10th in a time of 12:03, with Peter Alverio (11th in 12:03) and Brenden Guffey (16th in 12:31) also earning medals.

The junior Hornets scoring five was completed by David Carenza (21st in 12:42), and- Josh Pultro (25th in 12:46).

"I thought we had a good race. Russellville placed their five scorers in the top 8, which is dominant, but we are closing the gap on them. We need to break up their top five and move our 4th and 5th runners up closer to our leaders.

"We may not be able to catch Russellville, but I think we can put a scare in them if we keep working hard. We have been able to collect a lot of runner-up trophies this year. Of course we would rather be winning some meets, but going so far this season without finishing worse than second is nothing to be ashamed of," said Coach Steve Oury.

Junior and senior Hornets will be in action again next week in Conway.

The Bryant cross country teams are known for their competitiveness during the 7A-Central meets. The Hornets and Lady Hornets are favored to be among the top in the conference this season with Cabot and Conway.