By Kyle Roberts
CHOUDRANT, La. — Both the boys’ and girls’ put together terrific performances Saturday at the Ruston Invitational Meet after finishing in first place in both races as sophomore Eden Dawsey took overall first place in the girls’ section at the three-mile course at The Gospel.
The Lady Bearcats took the first race of the morning with 23 points (1+3+5+6+8 (11+17)) and beat second place Benton by 59 points. The boys would follow with their win at 34 points (3+4+6+9+12 (17+19)) for a 19-point finish over second place West Ouachita.
“This weekend was what we needed to start the stretch run towards the state meet,” Ruston High Cross Country Coach Dustin Cochran said. “We got to run at our home invitational, and sleep in our own beds. The home meet is always a great opportunity to rest up a little bit and let loose here in front of our friends and family. This year was a little bit more special. We had “The Long Red Line” reunion and Dave Anderson in town. I told our kids that I wanted them to run with a little edge in this one. Get out, get to the front of the race, and take a chance. If you blow up, so be it, but let’s try to channel a little bit of the Bearcat spirit from the alums and do something great.
“I think our kids did that. There was a great number of them that were truly locked in, even at our smaller home invitational. They had a camera from the videographer on them for most of the morning. They stayed focused, and competed really hard on the course. Eden Dawsey set the tone in the girls race, and all the way through the last boy to cross the finish line, we competed like crazy. I can’t say enough about the team’s willingness to listen, prepare, and go out and execute our game plan. I thought we would get a number of huge performances from kids today and we did.”
Dawsey’s winning time of 18 minutes, 6.00 seconds was over 20 seconds better than West Ouachita’s Emma Bielkiewicz’s 18:28 second place finish. Ruston senior Hallie Hebert finished third at 18:46, while senior Maddy Parkman (19:13) and junior Madison Morris (19:32) took sixth and seventh, respectively.
Junior Addison Brister rounded out the scoring for Ruston with a ninth place finish at 19:45.
Other Ruston finishers:
- Sophomore Mary Hammond – 12th – 20:30
- Junior Aydan Murry – 19th – 21:16
- Junior Diana Santos – 27th – 22:20
- Junior Harper Anderson – 30th – 22:51
- Junior Emmersyn Nations – 31st – 22:53
- Freshman Rylie Nations – 44th – 23:26
- Freshman Lillian Turpin – 52nd – 23:54
Choudrant High also had a pair of runners in the meet – Freshman Audrey Holbron (81st, 26:34) and junior Lisa Starks (107th, 30:14).
On the boys’ side, senior Joshua Daulton led Ruston’s pack with a third place finish at 15:32, while senior Al-Amin Wilson finished close behind for fouth place at 15:45. Senior Luke Brawell took sixth at 15:45, while junior Wyatt Hancock placed ninth at 16:02. Senior Ben Bourdreaux rounded out Ruston’s scoring with a 12th place finish at 16:06.
Other Ruston finishers:
- Sophore Kellen Ketchum – 17th – 16:21
- Junior Preston Parker – 19th – 16:36
- Junior Eli Watson – 21st – 16:36
- Freshman Zion Henderon – 29th – 17:16
- Freshman Lucas Watts – 33rd – 17:25
- Freshman Owen Hanchey – 34th – 17:27
- Sophomore Gabriel Mhire – 36th – 17:28
- Sophomore Roan Sutherland – 38th – 17:31
- Junior Drake Purvis – 42nd – 17:35
- Sophomore Keegan Boudreaux – 48th – 18:07
- Junior Tate Hammond – 54th – 18:18
- Senior Charles Rufleth – 59th – 18:31
- Sophomore Landon Newson – 74th – 19:29
- Freshman Brady Berg – 75th – 19:30
“I also want to make sure I shout out Eli Watson,” Cochran said. “We held him out of the first couple meets because in years past he’s been injury prone and a rushed start to the season hindered him later. We took the month of September and just slowly built the engine to where he was ready to go. His PR coming in to today was 18:50, and he ran 16:36, and almost got in our Top 7. For a kid to say ‘Okay, I understand why I don’t get to race, and this is the right move for me,’ is a rare occurrence. Everyone wants to go race, and Eli is no different. But his selflessness and the ability to look at the big picture led to a massive breakout today and possibly the start of something special. He is just another example about what it means to embody being a Bearcat and being on a team. I thought that was a very fitting performance in front of so many alumni that made many of their own sacrifices for the good of the Bearcat Cross Country team.”
Choudrant also had a few Aggies run in the boys race: Collin Rozelle (87th, 19:48), Braxton Smith (104th, 21:12), Landry Henry (116th, 21:45) and Kyle Mills (166th, 27:47).
