By Kyle Roberts
Thursday morning saw tremendous performances by Ruston High School cross country runners in the LHSAA D1 – Region 1 2022 race at Lincoln Parish Park.
Both seniors Lily Garrett and Bryar Madden took first place in their respective races on the three mile track, with the girls’ race starting at 11:50 a.m. and the boys’ race starting at 12:30 p.m.
“This is Regional Championship number four in a row for the boys and three in a row for the girls, but this is by far the most impressive one to me,” Ruston head coach Dustin Cochran said. “This year, these kids have battled freak injury, the flu, bronchitis, and just bad luck. But they’ve been together through it all. There has been so much growth from these kids this year as a team. No matter how state comes out, the way they compete for each other has made them winners. The district titles last week and regional titles this week have flat out been impressive.
The Lady Bearcats took the first race with a 23-point performance (1+2+4+6+10) with a 1 minute, 49 second 1-5 Split and and average time of 18:55, the only school in the girls’ race to finish with an average under 20 minutes.
Garrett finished with an impressive 18 minutes, 7.43 second performance followed by Ruston sophomore Parker Nations at 18:31.65. Sophomore Sara Naff took fifth overall at 18:48.31, while sophomore Sydney Owens finished seventh at 19:11.26. Junior Zoie Holstead placed eleventh overall with a time of 19:56.50, while freshman Maddy Parkman took twentieth overall 20:52.54 with freshman Hallie Hebert finishing right behind at 20:56.50.
On the boys’ side, Madden pushed hard for his 15:37.85 first place finish besting junior Gabriel Falting of Parkway High by less than two seconds. Junior Thomas Rogers finished third at 15:40.80, while freshman Taylor Roller took sixth at 15:47.65. Junior Landon Byrd finished right behind Roller with a time of 16:11.85 for a seventh place finish. Rounding out Ruston’s scoring was junior Liam Lowe at 17:12.25. Senior Andrew McKaskle ran a time of 17:24.11 for 21st overall, while junior Cole Magee took 38th at 18:24.28.
Ruston took first over in the boys’ as well at 35 points (1+3+6+7+18) with a 1:34 1-5 split and an average time of 16:06. Making a competitive push on Ruston was Parkway at 48 points overall.
“I couldn’t be more proud of the group” Cochran said. “We’re really looking forward to being together another week and seeing what we can do at state.”
Ruston will return to action at Monday, November 14, at Northwestern State for the LHSAA State Championship meet to wrap up the postseason.
