Helped by freshmen running their second races of the day the Booneville Bearcats and Lady Bearcats both won District 3A-4 titles Monday.
For the girls it was an absolute necessity that Emily Thornburg, who had finished 11th in the junior girls race to start the meet that covered about 1.5 miles, run a second race.
Thornburg crossed the finish line in 6th in the longer 5K race.
Leading the Lady Bearcats was Kaylee King (shown) who ran a 27:44. King led much of the race before falling to 3rd.
Just behind King was Jessah Posey in 4th at 29:15.
Completing the scoring for the Lady Bearcats was Daneilla Vazques at 12th and Cora Nichols at 14th.
Senior Boys
Senior Nathan Hicks, freshman Jaydon Walker, and junior Taylor Shaver finished within a 25 second span to lead the Bearcats to the title.
Hicks finished 2nd at 22:23, Walker was 3rd at 22:32, and Shaver was in 5th at 22:48.
Leo Vazques, a freshman also collected his second medal – top 10 – of the day by finishing 8th at 23:02.
Nate Fowler completed the scoring with a 19th place finish with Cooper Lentz in 21st if a tie-breaker was necessary.
Also running were Aayden Hill, Jeremiah Posey, Brendan Hubble, and Barrett Coker.
Junior Boys
Also earning hardware was the Junior High Bearcats with a runner-up finish behind Walker’s race win with a time of 9:44.
Eighth grader Breyer Graham was just :05 in second and Vazques was 9th.
Completing the scoring was Breckyn Denton in 19th and Parker Sing in 21st.
Austin Stone also ran for the Bearcats.
Junior Girls
A single point kept the Lady Bearcats from a top two finish as a team in the first race of the day.
Lillie Holt led the Lady Bearcats with an 8th place finish and Thornburg was 11th.
Ariel Mezzaline took 12th, Aleena Guajardo was 17th, and Bryleigh Hubble 22nd accounting for the 63 points for the meet hosts.
With five of the top 10 finishes, Lamar easily won the meet with 28 points and Cedarville was second with 62.
The state cross country meet will be held November 6 at Oaklawn in Hot Springs.
BEARCATS, LADY BEARCATS WIN 3A-4 CROSS COUNTRY TITLES
