By Kyle Roberts

Both Ruston High School cross country teams brought home district titles this past week at the 2022 North Louisiana Championships at Chenault Park Thursday afternoon in Monroe, La.

For Ruston head coach Dustin Cochran, it’s a special district title considering how the teams overcame adversity en route to their respective 2-5A crowns.

“As a team we were incredible yesterday,” Cochran said. “We were missing ten runners that were either sick or had a little injury and couldn’t compete. I don’t know how many teams can lose ten runners and still do as well as we did. I think it speaks volumes about the leadership on the team and the team first mindset.”

In the girls varsity division, senior Lily Garrett won the overall race with a time of 18 minutes, 6.80 seconds. Sophomore Parker Nations took third at 18:31.53, while sophomore Sara Naff took fourth at 19:10.57. Sophomore Sydney Owens placed fourth at 19:28.42, and rounding out the scoring for the Lady Bearcats was junior Zoie Holstead at eighth overall with a time of 20:30.79. Freshman Maddy Parkman took eleventh at 20:53.14.

For the boys, four Bearcats finished in the top five overall. Junior Thomas Rogers took second with a time of 15:29.57. Freshman Taylor Roller finished right behind at third at 15:47.11, while junior Landon Byrd took fourth at 15:51.41. Senior Bryar Madden finished fifth at 15:56.33, and junior Cole Magee took fourteenth 17:03.01 to round out Ruston’s scorers.

Also finishing for the Bearcats were freshman Joshua Dalton at fifteenth at 17:12.24 and freshman Al-Amin Wilson at sixteenth with a time of 17:17.75.

“The ability to battle through adversity is a key factor in success,” Cochran said. “At some point everyone goes through an adverse time. You can’t control what happens to you, but you can control how you react to it. This week we had plenty of those moments. Even while dealing with adversity, the runners we did have gave extreme effort. Winning a championship meet of any kind is always hard and takes everyone moving in the same direction. These kids did that Thursday. The energy was great. The effort was incredible. We are looking forward to being healthier next week, everyone feeling better, and putting our best effort towards.”

Postseason begins for Ruston on Thursday, November 3, at Lincoln Parish Park in Ruston, La., for the Division I Region I Championships.