By Tony Burns
Sports Editor
Cross Country teams from El Dorado and Parkers Chapel traveled to Hot Springs Saturday morning and competed in the highly-competitive Lake Hamilton Invitational. The meet included 44 teams and more than a thousand runners (1,014) in the four divisions.
“Lake Hamilton Invitational is a very competitive meet. We saw what could possibly be the top teams in every division in the state,” said El Dorado coach John Koonce.
El Dorado's varsity boys finished 15th out of 33 teams. Jadon Cunningham led the way, placing 67th with a time of 18:20.28. Brooks Coan was 112th (19:16.43) with Hudson McDiarmid 115th (19:21.90), J.D. Halstead 120th (19:24.81) and Hayden McDiarmid 140th (19:44.60). Other Wildcats included Eloy Rodriguez 165th, Ruben Berrequin 172nd, Carson Ricker 215th, Collin Taylor 232nd, Hunter Meeks 248th, Shane Ward 264th, Ian Hernandez 268th and Braden Griffen 293rd.
“These boys competed well this week. I held our normal five runner out due to a minor injury. We saw a lot of individual PR’s today,” said Koonce. “Jadon Cunningham is getting very close to breaking the 18-minute mark. As a team the average time for our scoring runners was about 19 minutes, which is a minute faster than last year at this course. With that time the boys are in a good position to place well at conference and state.”
Korbin McAuliffe led Parkers Chapel, finishing 236th. He was followed by Spencer Frisby (276), Thomas Hardy (282), Mason Dougan (289) and Peyton Thompkins (317).
In varsity girls, Parkers Chapel's Jana Avery finished 79th with a time of 23:15.33. Ali Looney was 105th with a time of 23:52.95 with Taylor Fortune finishing 251st, Kenlee McAuliffe 260th and Madison Sullivan 265th.
Alivia Zartuche led the Lady Wildcats with a 153rd finish and a time of 25:19.36. Victoria Lewis was 195th in 26:41.31 followed by Iankel Gonzalez (254th) and Laura Farris (258th).
“Since we were down a runner, today was about what they could do individually,” Koonce said. “Alivia continues to improve on a weekly basis. These girls all ran hard when it was pouring down rain.”
Barton's junior girls finished sixth, led by Addy Taylor, who finished 28th with a time of 15:41.28. Alexa Dewey was 45th in 16:39.69 with Hope Walthall 63rd (17:11.49), Haven Margis 69th (17:23.14) and Aubree Ezell 74th (17:32.71). Presley Givens (98th), Katelyn Hayden (102nd), Sara May (120th), Eliza Brewster (128th), Adrianna Arnold (134th), Mary Claire Parker (135th) and Henley McAdams (149th).
“I was very, very pleased with this group,” said Koonce. “Addy ran an outstanding race and to come with a top 30 award in this field is really a great accomplishment. Alexa wasn’t too far behind. These two freshman continue to be our leaders. Hope Walthall had her best race of the year. She has been our three girl all year but she is continually improving and closing the gap. The seventh graders, Haven Margis and Aubree Ezell, rounded out our scoring places. Junior girls are peaking at the right time of the year. I was very proud of this group today.”
Nic Harvey led Barton's junior boys with a 98th place finish. Austin Richard (111), Calvin Huang (116), Edwin Gonzalez (123), Jacob Neugebauer (173), Matthieu Malin (177) and Lex Nash (197) rounded out the Wildkittens.
“This wasn’t our best meet of the year. I told them to go out a little slower this week and they went out a little too conservative,” said Koonce. “But, they finished strong and competed well at the end. There was a little too much room to make up but I take blame for that. I gave them those instructions because I felt our finishes should have been better the last two weeks. We will learn from this and do better next week.”