Teams from Bowie, Nocona, Saint Jo, Prairie Valley and Forestburg all competed at Alvord on Wednesday morning.
Of all the teams from Montague County it was the Saint Jo boy’s team that came away with the best overall place. The Panthers finished fifth while the boys from Nocona, Bowie and Prairie Valley finished sixth, eighth and ninth.
On the girl’s side the Nocona Lady Indians finished seventh overall while the Lady Bulldogs from Prairie Valley finished ninth. The Lady Rabbits were running shorthanded and did not have enough runners to compete as a team.
The Saint Jo boy’s team was led by two-time state qualifier Collin Thomas, who finished third overall with a time of 18:49. The top five finishers for the Panthers also included Devin Stewart (17), Kile Thurman (24), Jayden Curry (34) and Brice Durham (54).
Coach Lyndon Cook was proud of how his team competed until the end of the race.
“One thing we pride ourselves on is not getting beat in footraces to the end and we did that multiple times and it just speaks to how competitive these kids really are,” Cook said.
The Nocona boy’s team was led by Freddy Duran who finished in 20th place with a time of 20:35. The top five runners for the Indians also included Alex Stephens (23), Claudio Segura (27), Frank Espinoza (29) and Ivan Hernandez (39).
Coach Colby Schniederjan thought his team did alright considering the circumstances.
“We are currently battling some injuries and were shorthanded, but I thought the guys ran well and competed,” Schniederjan said.
The Nocona girl’s team was led by Allie Brown who finished third overall with a time of 11:57. The top five runners also included Graci Brown (19), Jayce Rose (22), Melissa Segura (53) and Honey Walker (64).
Coach Kyle Spitzer was proud Brown earned an individual medal, but was most pleased with all of his girl’s times coming down.
The top runner for the Bowie boy’s team was Nathan Rogers who finished 12th with a time of 19:53. The top five runners for the Jackrabbits also included Ignacio Saucedo (19), Alex Castro (28), Ethan Malone (47) and Jax Williams.
The Bowie girls had three runners compete. Laisha Johnson finished 46th with a time of 14:31. Jojo Villarreal and Hadley Morris finished right after the other in 50th and 51st places.
The Prairie Valley girl’s team top runner was Linzie Priddy who finished 10th with a time of 12:49. The team’s top five runners included Karagan Ritchie (49), Veronica Gutierrez (61), Randi Gilleland (73) and Kennedy Stone (76).
The Bulldog’s top runner was Michael Cole who finished 31st with a time of 21:47. The top five runners included Isaac Yeargin (58), Tyson Easterling (59), Kooper Croxton (61) and Konner Ritchie (63).
Boy’s coach Seth Stephens thought his team did not run up to its potential after the first meet despite several of the team’s top runners out with injury.
“We were a little disappointed that our times were not as good this week as last week,” Stephens said. “The course was a little more challenging, but we have to be able to make up that difference by training hard. I know our guys will always work hard so I expect us to bounce back next week.”
On the girl’s side individual runners Aubrey Morman from Saint Jo and Justynne Roller from Forestburg ran as well. Roller finished 59th with a time of 15:13 which was more than 50 seconds faster than her best run this season.
Morman finished 60th with a time of 15:17. Coach Cook made sure to point out how the time was more than a minute and half faster than last week’s race at Ponder.
The next race leads the schools to separate meets. Bowie is scheduled to run at Lindsay on Sept. 29. Nocona is scheduled to run at Brock on Sept. 29.
Prairie Valley is hosting its own meet on Sept. 29 and Saint Jo is scheduled to run there. Forestburg is next scheduled to run at Decatur on Oct. 2.

To see results for all high school runners, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.