For the second straight week, Sulphur’s cross country teams reined as top dogs.
Both boys and girls captured first place team titles at the Madill Cat Run last Saturday, each team with seven runners winning medals.
In the boy’s division, 10 southern Oklahoma teams including Madill, Ardmore, McLoud, Lone Grove, Marietta, Durant, Silo, Kingston, Stonewall and Sulphur competed for the title.
Morgan Brown led the Bulldogs with a sixth place finish and a personal record of 17:05. He is now third on the Sulphur XC all-time record board, according to coach Emile Heitland.
“Morgan is incredibly motivated right now and has put in a tremendous amount of work preparing for this season,” said Heitland. “It was exciting to see him have such a big PR this early on.”
Following Morgan were: Keaton Seitz, 8th place, Calvin Downey, 10th, Noah Heitland, 16th, Andrew Hail, 17th, Zak Kirk, 18th, and Korbin Mayo 22nd.
There were 106 runners com- peting in the event.
The Sulphur boys also claimed their second straight cross country win last week.They are, from left, front, Calvin Downey, Ryan Berry, Keaton Seitz, Andrew Hail, Zak Kirk, Noah Heitland, Landy DeArman, Korbin Mayo, Morgan Brown; back, Wyatt Clark, Matias Gonzalez, Noah Strasbaugh, Damian Medina, Noah Wellburn, Xander Gahn, and Aiden Espitia.
CC Teams
“We carried the momentum from last week’s first place finish into practice,” said Heitland. “This was easily our best week of preparation so far, and it showed at the Madill meet. With multiple personal records and another first-place finish, the team’s hard work is paying off.”
Lee Paces Sulphur Girls
For the girls, Jayden Lee again showed her skills with a second place individual effort. Last week at Marietta, she won the title.
“We had a great day at the Madill Cat Run,” said coach Kari Seitz. “Eight high school girls set new personal records on Saturday in a big way. ”
Seitz said Lee broke her own two-mile school record with a time of 12:01, beating her previous school record of 12:24, which she set last year.
Hannah Hall, who placed seventh individually in the meet, ran the fourth fastest two-mile time in school history with a 13:06.
“All of the girls didn’t just take a few seconds off their old PRs, they improved considerably,” said Seitz.
Following Lee and Hall in scoring for the girls were: Rory Mc-Millan, 9th, Paxtyn Hiser, 13th, Mady Hatfield, 20th, Landry Eason, 24th, and Daniela Rojo Rios, 25th.
“They had tough competition on Saturday and it was great to see them rise to the challenge,” said Seitz. “I was very proud of how well everyone ran, they all competed hard and improved their race. That’s the most important part, especially here at the beginning of the season, getting better, in some way, each week.”
Boys 5th, Girls 3rd In Junior High Competition
In junior high competition, the Sulphur boys placed fifth and the girls won third.
The boys were led again by a winning performance from Jack Mann. He was followed by Dautry Smith, 13th, and Skyler Sloan, 18th. Seven boys ran their personal best time, according to Heitland. For the girls, Gabbi Pettigrew led her team with a second place finish, followed by Jozi Gilliam, 3rd, and Huntley Hatfield, 4th.
Seitz said the junior high girls had a challenging race, with 128 runners and heavy rain. “They didn’t let those factors get in their way though, and I’m very proud of how well they ran,” said Seitz. “They all competed hard and seven girls set new PRs Saturday in tough conditions.–”
Two Sulphur runners lead a pack of competitors in last Saturday’s Madill Cat Run.
