Burnet cross country earns top finishes at Stephenville

The Burnet High School cross country program competed at the Thrill of the Hill Invitational hosted by Stephenville Oct. 1.

The Bulldogs finished second and the Lady Dawgs were sixth in the varsity divisions. The boys division drew 25 teams and the girls division had 22 teams.

Leading the way for both teams were gold medalists Adan Carreon for the Bulldogs and Asah Roy for the Lady Dawgs.

“Just super proud of both Asah and Adan,” head coach Simon Hairston said. “They both ran fantastic races.”

Clark Yanez was seventh overall in the boys varsity race, while Christopher Hernandez came in 18th, Jose Flores was 27th, Russell Ramirez finished 32nd, and Austin Moore came in 35th.

“Clark was a little bit behind Adan, and I think he was still holding back from his previous week,” Hairston said. “(He) really came back in a strong race as well. I just feel like he was holding a little bit back, so that he could be OK.”

In the girls race, Erica Flores was 31st, Abby Bennight came in 33rd, Josie McDavid finished 37th, and Breken Langley came in 53rd.

“Abby and Erica are really stepping up to fill those roles that I was wanting them to fill earlier in the year and to see them running better times and more competitive times,” the coach said. “Where I expected them to be at is very encouraging and just a tribute to their hard work. (They’re all) doing what they’re currently doing; I feel like we can have good things going.”

What made Burnet’s finishes even more impressive was the length.

“They actually ran a little bit longer course,” Hairston said. “They had a little bit longer of a course than the standard two-mile and 3.2-mile races.”

He pointed out the number of teams in each division made it a challenging meet.

“There were quite a few small schools, but there were actually a couple of bigger schools like San Angelo Central that we were competing against,” he said. “So proud of the guys on their side – a collective team effort. I’m extremely producte of how our guys team has consistently week in and week out proven themselves with great finishes. Just very resilient.”

Hairston explained why the meet is called the Thrill in the Hill.

“There’s a big hill in Stephenville that proved challenging for, I think, all the athletes who participated,” he said. “We haven’t seen that degree of a hill in a race. Having that experience was definitely a challenge and one that we embraced. I felt like all the kids did a fantastic job of pushing through mentally on that.”

RESULTS

BOYS

Varsity (166 runners)

1, Adan Carreon, 17:44.67; 7, Clark Yanez, 18:24.81; 18, Christopher Hernandez, 19:29.03; 27, Jose Flores, 19:48.11; 32, Russell Ramirez, 19:54.74; 35, Austin Moore, 19:58.63; 64, Hector Vega, 20:51.22; 137, Andrew Resendez, 24:46.64

Junior varsity (112 runners)

6, Gabe Castillo, 21:02.23; 9, Gatlin Gilmore, 21:09.30; 18, Leon Perez, 21:58.05; 64, Matthew Resendez, 24:41.63; 73, Gilverto Barajas, 25:28.88; 95, Angelo Ramirez, 28:04.34

Eighth grade (137 runners)

3, Luis Aviles, 12:51.59;16, Cason Manning, 13:33.98; 39, Jonas Ramirez, 14:56.52; 69, Layton Gaines, 16:01.02; 97, Axcel Gonzalez, 17:11.52; 98, Gage Schmidt, 17:12.44; 101, Daniel Hawkins, 17:30.11; 107, Kaiden Walker, 18:03.78; 124, Charles Hawkins, 20:07.44; 137, Mason Stafford, 21:13.04

Seventh grade (125 runners)

8, Jude Caballero, 14:15.69; 76, Cohen Oliva, 18:48.98; 80, Eli Simons, 18:56.13; 86, Jaxon Scaffer, 19:32.15; 94, Angel Camacho, 19:45.51;

GIRLS

Varsity (161 runners)

1, Asah Roy, 12:58.58; 31, Erica Flores, 15:06.20; 33, Abby Bennight, 15:08.64; 37, Josie McDavid, 15:15.53; 53, Breken Langley, 15:29.35; 59, Kamila Palacios, 15:37.75; 84, Brooklyn Flores, 16:10.10

Junior varsity (101 runners)

12, Marigny Griffin, 16:32.99; 20, Naveah Perez, 16:52.57; 22, Bethany Norred, 16:55.93; 32, Perla Rodriguez, 17:20.25; 39, Savannah Griffin, 17:50.73; 61, Ava Saldivar, 18:45.35; 82, Emily Montoya, 20:06.09

Eighth grade (149 runners)

39, Ximena Zarate, 16:23.12; 44, Samantha Hernandez, 16:36.44; 77, Mia Avila, 18:12.94; 84, Charli Taylor, 18:34.84; 92, MaKinley Ondrusek, 19:02.13; 99, Taniah Fernandez, 19:25.84; 101, Sydnee Saldivar, 19:27.27; 110 Violet Griffin, 19:41.13; 135, Camila Lemus, 21:14.31;

Seventh grade (193 runners)

42, Magaly Garcia, 17:50.55; 58, Stephanie Flores, 18:34.35; 61, Aubree Proctor, 18:42.64; 87, Melanie Suarez, 19:30.57; 103, Ximena Valdez, 20:07.94; 114, Isabella Jaramillo, 21:02.48; 162, Imelda Flores, 23:30.19; 175, Camila Espinoza, 24:24.02; 189, Loretta Horner, 26:27.51