Burnet cross country brings home medals, plaques from Belton, Vikings XC Invitationals
CAPTION: The Burnet High School cross country runners celebrate some outstanding finishes at the Belton Invitational Aug. 21. Courtesy photo
The Burnet High School cross country program earned some great finishes in August to set itself up for success in September.
That’s the word from head coach Simon Hairston.
“When your teams can experience exponential success, it’s just a catalyst that really keeps that fire going and keeps them hungry,” he said.
The Bulldogs finished fourth in the Vikings XC Invitational Aug. 28 and won the Belton Invitational Aug. 21 thanks to having all five runners finish in the top 11.
“Anytime you have that you know the results are going to be really good,” Hairston said. “The experience that the guys have, especially on that side, knowing each other and being able to pace off each other, is invaluable. With them having the experience, the majority of our guys running together since last year with the exception of Cason Manning at the Belton meet, it really gives us, I think, an advantage because our guys know really where they are able to push each other. We train together, we run races together as a team, and they have experience running with each other. They just really know where they should be at and when they should be there, and I think that’s such a great tool for us that serves us so well.”
The Lady Dawgs finished 10th at the Vikings XC Invitational Aug. 28 and third at the Belton Invitational.
“A lot of our girls haven’t had the opportunity on the varsity and the JV levels to run together like our guys have,” the coach said. “A vast majority of our guys train together, ran together. We have a younger girls team this year. It was so neat to see our Lady Dawgs show up and from such an early, early stage, just get a little bit of continuity there. We had our girls finishing rather close in the pack with our top three to four runners They’ve been pushing and pacing themselves. It gives them an opportunity to really just elevate their performance.”
He was really pleased with the finishes from all of his runners at Belton.
“Belton was a just a great meet for everybody across the board,” Hairston said. “I felt like for the second meet of the year that both of the varsity and the (junior varsity) side, we just had a really good outing. The course was pretty friendly to us.”
He noted the runners prepared well for what they were facing while running the course.
“We’ve done a little bit more hill training this year, implementing that into our weekly regimen of what we’re doing week in and week out,” the coach said. “So that’s helping us I think with endurance and really over the course of anything that we’ve done. I’ve wanted to do a more hill training in our workouts to really work on the middle aspect of it, too. At Belton I felt like we were able to really separate ourselves in the back third of the course, because there’s a little bit of a hilly portion of it. And that helped our guys really, I think, have a strong finish across the board compared to some of the competition that we were running against.”
Hairston noted the Lago Vista meet drew plenty of schools from across central Texas.
“It had a lot of (Class) 5A schools there, 5A and 6A schools,” he said. “It’s one of my favorite courses that we get to run. It’s a true cross-country course. It’s challenging, and I feel like it’s the epitome of what a cross-country course should be.”
Burnet will compete in the Floyd Farms Invitational Friday, Sept. 4.
CAPTION: The Burnet High School cross country program with medals from the Vikings XC Invitational at Lago Vista. Photo by Martelle Luedecke/Luedecke Photography
RESULTS
BOYS
Viking XC Invitational Aug. 28
Varsity (14 teams, 101 runners)
4, Clark Yanez, 17:20; 17, Isaac Vega, 18:19; 19, Russell Ramirez, 18:27; 38, Christopher Hernandez, 19:21; 43, Cason Manning, 19:41; 47, Gabe Castillo, 19:47; 74, Jocsan Sanchez, 20:46
Junior varsity (11 teams, 131 runners)
3, Jose Flores, 11:52; 7, Paxton Courtney, 12:13; 8, Austin Moore, 12:13, 9, Adan Carreon, 12:20; 11, Leon Perez, 12:29; 28, Zachary Lindsay, 13:04; 71, Christian Strauss-Cabrera, 14:57
Belton Invitational Aug. 21
Varsity (9 teams, 55 runners. Burnet is division champion)
1, Clark Yanez, 17:28.66; 3, Isaac Vega, 18:30.54; 5, Christopher Hernandez, 18:41.55; 6, Russell Ramirez, 18:53.76; 8, Cason Manning, 19:12.47; 11, Gabe Castillo, 19:51.42; 15, Paxton Courtney, 20:28.35; 18, Austin Moore, 20:52.67
Junior varsity (3 teams, 30 runners. Burnet is division champion)
1, Jocsan Sanchez, 19:41-28; 3, Leon Perez, 20:51.41; 4, Layton Gaines, 22:01.28; 6, Zachary Lindsay, 22:18.28; 18, Angelo Ramirez, 25:47.65; 28, Christian Strauss-Cabrera, 34:55.74
GIRLS
Viking XC Invitational Aug. 28
Varsity (14 teams, 92 runners)
29, Kamila Palacios, 14:10; 34, Ximena Zarate, 14:16; 45, Brekyn Langley, 14:50; 52, Jayde Smith, 15:06; 69, Perla Rodriguez, 16:41
Junior varsity (12 teams, 116 runners)
37, Bella Lindsay, 16:45; 50, Karla Rodriguez, 17:12; 52, Brooklyn Flores, 17:18; 62, Vanessa Chavez, 18:04; 68, Emily Montoya, 20:52
Belton Invitational Aug. 21
Varsity (5 teams, 52 runners)
8, Kamila Palacios, 13:21.96; 10, Jayde Smith, 13:35.09; 11, Brekyn Langley, 13:36.08; 12, Ximena Zarate, 13:42.67; 33, Savannah Griffin, 15:56.09; 37, Perla Rodriguez, 16:16.64
Junior varsity (3 teams, 23 runners)
6, Bellas Lindsay, 16:28.37; 7, Vanessa Chavez, 16:48.36; 12, Karla Rodriguez, 17:34.44; 18, Brooklyn Flores, 19:11.92; 20, Emily Montoya, 20:44.09
