SPORTS
1A cross country teams compete at district
Area runners from 1A schools competed on Wednesday at the district cross country meet for a chance to qualify for the regional meet.
In the end, the Saint Jo boy’s and the Prairie Valley girls team qualified along with two girls from Bellevue and one boy from Prairie Valley.
Taking place at Pelham Park in Bowie under cold and wet conditions, along with only the top two teams qualifying for the regional meet due to COVID-19, it was a challenge for every runner.
The Lady Bulldogs finished second overall and were led by Karagan Ritchey, who finished eighth overall with a time of 15:41. Her teammates were not far behind with Molly Gilleland finishing 11th, Hailey Winkler finishing 15th, Cassy Atteberry finishing 16th and Veronica Gutierrez finishing 17th.
Coach Jeannie Carpenter was proud her team was able to qualify for the fifth year in a row despite all of her girls also playing volleyball.
“We knew Slidell had a loaded team and we knew with only two teams advancing this year, we were going to have to be at our best,” Carpenter said. “I’m extremely proud of these girls and how hard they work.”
The Panthers finished second as a team and were led by Collin Thomas who finished second with a time of 19:36. Kile Thurman joined him on the medal stand finishing fifth while teammate Noble Koelzer (13th), Josh Vogel (14th) and Brice Durham (20th) contributed as well.
Coach Lyndon Cook was proud his team powered through the tough conditions to make it back to the regional meet for the second straight season.
“Taking a team to regionals in back-to-back years is really a product of us having some talented athletes that have bought into the program and are putting their team first,” Cook said. “Two of our five had never run cross country before this season and both wound up in the top 20 at district and that anchored us to being able to get out of district again.”
The Bellevue girl’s team finished third overall nine points behind the Lady Bulldogs.
The team was led by Sky-Lar Embry who qualified individually by finishing fourth with a time of 15:13. Teammate Grace Martin joined her in qualifying for the regional meet finishing ninth with a time of 15:48.
Among the top five runners for the Lady Eagles included Austin Ford (14th), Cirstin Allen (24th) and Kaylee Trail (25th).
The Prairie Valley boy’s team finished fourth overall.
Tyler Winkler qualified for the regional meet individually for the second straight year, finishing fourth overall with a time of 20 minutes flat.
“Tyler has done a great job,” Coach Seth Stephens said. “He jumped several places from last year so I’m proud of him and now we’re focusing on getting ready for regionals and hopefully he’ll have his best race of the season there.”
The top five finishers for the Bulldogs also included Michael Cole (15th), Dayton Neugebaur (16th), Issac Yeargin (21st) and Zak Smith (24th).
The Bellevue boy’s team finished fifth overall and were led by Jason Gill who finished 19th with a time of 23:37. Among the top five finishers for the Eagles included Terrance Perry finishing 22nd, Josh Benson finishing 27th, Sam Innes finishing 29th and Colton Shook finishing 30th.
Some schools did not have enough runners to fill out a five person team and ran individually. From Gold-Burg Shadie Whitaker finished 23rd in the girls race. In the boy’s race Gideon Hellinger finished 26th, Jacob Tanner finished 28th and Rykir Evans finished 33rd.
From Forestburg, Justynne Roller overcame a shoe malfunction at the start to finish 18th overall.
The regional meet is scheduled for Nov. 9-10 at the Jesse Owens Memorial Complex in Dallas.
To see results for all high school individual runners, pick up a copy of weekend edition of the Bowie News.
Nocona
The Nocona Indians picked up dominant wins against Chico in their series against the Dragons last week.
The Indians won both games 11-0 by run-rule after five innings to get their first district wins of the season.
Nocona was coming off losing both games against Lindsay the previous week in its first district series and bounced back in a big way.
In the first game at home last week, the Indians scored six runs in the first inning and five in the third inning which proved to be all the offense they needed.
Kutter Cabrera led the team with three RBIs while Miller Jentry was second with two RBIs. The team finished with nine hits and drew eight walks.
On the mound, Walker Murphey pitched a shut out while striking out seven and allowing three hits. Defensively, the team committed one fielding error.
The second game saw Nocona score all of its runs in the first three innings, highlighted by scoring six runs in the second inning.
Murphey hit a three-run home run to lead the team while Brody Langford and Landon Fatheree each had two RBIs.
On the mound RJ Walker had a big day, throwing a perfect four innings which means he did not allow a hit or walk anyone. He also struck out eight batters, which put him over 100 career strikeouts in high school. The defense committed no fielding errors.
Saint Jo
The Saint Jo Panthers lost their series against Bryson last week.
The first game was a close 3-0 loss, but the second game was 11-0, done after four and half innings due to run-rule.
The Panthers were coming off close losses to Perrin-Whitt from the previous week. They were hoping they could turn their fortune around playing another 1A program.
Unfortunately in the first game, the Cowboys got off to a good start, scoring three runs in the first inning, with two coming with two outs due to an error and a dropped third strike.
Saint Jo’s pitching and defense tightened up after that to not allow another run in the final six innings. Unfortunately, the Panthers had only two hits and four base runners all game as they lost the close game 3-0.
Charlie Evans and Rylan Forrest had the only two hits for Saint Jo in the game as the team struck out 18 times. Trent Gaston ended the game allowing three runs (one earned) on six hits while striking out five batters and walking two in six innings of work. The defense committed five fielding errors.
Unfortunately, things did not go as well several days later in game two. Bryson scored three runs in both the first and second innings before scoring five runs in the third inning. Saint Jo was not able to get a hit and drew two walks in the game.
The Panther defense committed six fielding errors which led to only three of the 11 runs given up were earned by the pitching staff who gave up five hits, walked six and hit four batters.
Bellevue
The Bellevue Eagles played Perrin-Whitt last week in a series.
The Pirates won the first game 11-1 by run-rule and the second game score was not updated on Game Changer.
The Eagles were coming off one-sided losses to Bryson the previous week in their first district series and was hoping to play better.
Bellevue did get out to an early lead in the first inning. River Trail hit an RBI single in the top of the first inning to go up 1-0, which proved to be the highlight of the game.
Perrin-Whitt scored three runs in the first inning, one in the second inning, two in the fourth inning and five in the fifth inning to win 11-1.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekly edition of the Bowie News.
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