A week away from the district race, teams from Bowie, Saint Jo and others came to compete at Nocona’s hosted cross country meet at Indian Oaks golf course.
All county schools ran in the first heat among seven teams and were challenged with the hilly golf course terrain.
The Nocona girl’s team did the best that day, finishing second overall. The Lady Indians were led by Kylie Rose who finished second with a time of 12:57.
Teammates Raylee Sparkman and Jayce Rose were not far behind finishing in fifth and sixth place. Teammates Cobi Womack and Natalie Pirkey rounded out the team finishing 27th and 33rd.
Coach Kyle Spitzer thought his team ran well overall and is looking ready for the district meet.
“This team has battled all year long, on the course and off,” Spitzer said. “I don’t expect anything less next week at district. I’m so proud of this team and look forward to competing next week.”
The Bowie boy’s team was the next best team finishing third. Sid Mayfield led the team finishing ninth overall with a time of 18:30. His teammates followed 11th place (Nathan Rogers), 15th place (Ignacion Saucedo), 22nd place (Alex Castro) and 36th place (James Allison).
Coach Andy Atkins was proud of how his team ran yesterday and feels like his team is ready for the district meet despite likely being down one runner.
“This will make things tougher on the team going into the meet, but I feel confident that someone will step up and run their best race of the year,” Atkins said. “I think we still have a good chance to make the top two and put multiple runners in the top 10.”
The Bowie girl’s team finished fifth in the heat as a team. Samantha Clarke led the team finishing ninth with a time of 13:55. Kaydee Jones finished 20th while Jojo Villarrea, Hannah Craddock and Madison Hartin finished 28-30.
Coach Joe Crabb thought his team ran great and saw improved times across the board from the earlier race at Nocona in September. With state power Holliday and a good Nocona team picked to finish tops in the district, Crabb hopes his girls can snag the other qualifying spot at the district meet.
The Saint Jo boy’s team finished fifth overall despite being the only 1A school in the heat. Collin Thomas led the team finishing third overall with a time of 17:59. Kile Thurman followed in 17th place, Joshua Vogel finished 35th, Noble Koelzer finished 47th and Brice Durham finished 52nd.
Coach Lyndon Cook likes the progress all of his runners have made this year. It will take everyone’s best day to top defending district champion Slidell, but Cook knows teams from Midway and Prairie Valley will also be fighting for that one other spot to qualify for the regional meet.
The Nocona boy’s team finished sixth overall and were led by Hank Ulbig finishing 20th with a time of 19:15.
The top five runners included Noe Estrada finishing 30th, Alex Stephens finishing 31st, Ivan Hernandez finishing 37th and Andrew Johnson finishing 42nd.
Coach Colby Schniederjan is still missing some runners and hopes he will have them back next week for the district meet.
The 3A district meet for Bowie and Nocona will be on Oct. 28 at Holliday High School in the morning. For Saint Jo, the 1A district meet is also on Oct. 28 but in Bowie at Pelham Park in the afternoon.

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