In a season where individual and team wins are becoming commonplace, the Houston High School and Houston Middle School cross country teams collected more victories Thursday (Sept. 25) at the annual Plato Eagle Invitational at Plato.
There were athletes from 14 high schools and 14 middle schools at the event.
In high school girls competition, Houston freshman Lyla Huffman won again, this time topping a field of 32 runners with a school record time of 20:00.1 on the flat-and-fast 5,000-meter course. Huffman led the Lady Tigers to another team triumph, finishing more than a minute ahead of the runner-up, Stoutland senior Mallory Shaw (21:04.0).
Next across the line for Houston was sophomore Jessyn Allen in fifth at 23:43.4, while senior Natalie Clinton came in sixth, senior Lilly Kincaid placed seventh and sophomore Jesslyn Crawford rounded out the team score in 20th.
The HHS boys placed third among six teams with 5-runner scores.
First to finish for the Tigers was senior Jack Sawyer, who came in 12th in a field of 53 with a time of 19:35.2. Next was junior home-schooler Marcus Posant in 14th, while sophomore Christopher Meier placed 17th, sophomore Michael Perez finished 21st and senior Jackson Evetts came in 25th.
Houston had three other runners in the field: Sophomore Gage Smith, sophomore Thomas Kincaid and senior Shane Yonkers.
Niangua freshman Colton Kirksey won the race with a time of 18:05.5.
In middle school running, Houston eighth-graders Oliver Choate and Myles Copley won again, as Choate beat a field of 74 in the boys race with a time of 11:39.3 on the 3,200-meter course, and Copley ran ahead of a field of 57 at 13:16.3.
The HMS boys topped the team standings with only 27 points (compared to the 68 points of second-place Mountain Grove), sweeping the top-4 spots. Eighth-grader Charlie Benoist finished second at 12:00.3, eighth-grader Liam Stickle placed third at 12:29.5 and seventh-grader Rocky Gilbert came in fourth at 12:44.9. Seventh-grader Dominic Stice completed the Tigers’ team score by placing 20th.
On the girls side, HMS seventh-grader Hayden Jones ran in the top-10, placing sixth at 16:14.3
Copley finished just under two minutes in front of the second-place runner, Laquey sixth-grader Shaelyn Cassity, who posted a time of 15:15.8.
Next week, Houston runners are scheduled to compete Tuesday at Mountain Grove.
