By Kyle Roberts
CADE, La. — Ain’t no Shade? Ain’t no problem for the Bearcats.
Ruston High’s cross country squads both took first place Saturday in the Episcopal of Acadiana Ain’t No Shade in Cade 2024 three-mile race with impressive individual finishes, as well.
The girls took first place after scoring 35 points (1+3+5+9+17=35) with a 19 minute, 38 second average for the team. Freshman Eden Dawsey is continuing her dominant season with a first place finish among official runners at 18:29.50, while junior Hallie Hebert came in third at 18:55.30.
Senior Parker Nations took fifth at 19:09.90, with senior Sydney Owens coming in ninth at 20:04.90. Sophomore Aydan Murry rounded out the Lady Bearcats’ scoring with a 17th place finish at 21:34.40.
“For the girls, it’s a big boost to get Parker back out there after missing the home meet,” Ruston High head coach Dustin Cochran. “She’s struggled for a while now with some little injuries and a respiratory illness. She said after Thursdays workout that this was the first time she’s felt good running in a long time and she went out and raced like it on Saturday. When you’re missing a runner like her from your lineup it just drags everyone’s confidence down. When she’s in there and ready to go, we feel really good about our chances no matter where we’re running. As she and the rest of this girls team get healthier, they’re going to be tough to deal with in championship season.”
The boys also placed first and scored 54 points (5+7+8+16+18=54) with junior Al-Amin Wilson leading the pack at 15:51.00 in a fifth place finish. Juniors Taylor Huddleston and Joshua Daulton finished seventh and eighth, respectively, with times of 15:59.30 and 15:59.50.
“The boys continue to do a great job of running together and racing smart,” Cochran said. “AJ, Taylor and Josh had just a 9 second finishing split and all finished in the top 10 again. When we get Ben back in there with them, that will really make us tough. It’s hard to fall off or give up when you’re racing that close to your teammates. Luke and Wyatt are doing it behind them, and when you look at the JV results week in and week out, you can see a whole line of guys working well off each other. I think the way our boys are working together is really making everyone better week in and week out.”
Junior Luke Braswell finished 16th at 17:02.90, while sophomore Wyatt Hancock took 18th place at 17:06.70.
For Cochran, this weekend has been another indication of the progress his 2024 team is making.
“Im excited about this weekend and what we were able to accomplish as a team,” Cochran concluded. “I really am enjoying how together this team is. It’s young, and it’s learning every single week, but we’re having a lot of fun day in and day out and people are experiencing some really good results right now. Next week at st joes the whole state will be there, and we will get a good picture of where we are now and what we need to do from now to November to finish where we want to finish.”
Ruston will return to action Saturday, Oct. 5, at the St. Joseph’s Invitational in Baton Rouge.
