The Nocona Lady Indians raced to a third place team finish with three top 10 individual finishers at the Midlothian James Smith Invitational on Thursday.

The Lady Indians were originally scheduled to compete at the Midwestern State University Stampede, but the event was canceled due to weather conditions. Sophomore Kylie Rose led Nocona with a fourth place finish in the 3,200-meter race for 4A and under varsity girls, with a time of 13:54.33.

Senior Maria Hernandez was right on her heels in fifth place with a time of 13:58.09. Meanwhile, Raylee Sparkman also finished in the top 10 after solidifying eighth place with a time of 14:18.90.

The team finished third, beat out by only 4A schools Argyle and Castleberry.

“These girls have been working very hard,” said Nocona Lady Indians Cross Country Coach Kyle Spitzer. “It was good to see their hard work pay off.”

In the boy’s division, Nocona finished 15th against large schools with an individual 22nd place finish from Joan Gomez in the 5,000-meter race. He crossed the finish line with a time of 19:38.92. Hank Ulbig finished with a time of 22:26.04, with Rowdy Waters coming in at 23:46.66.

“I was pleased with our first race,” said Nocona Boys Cross Country Coach Colby Schniederjan. “We need to continue to improve our times and mile by mile pace, but overall I was pleased.”

Read the full story in the weekend edition of The Bowie News.