HHS girls qualify for state cross country meet again

For the second straight year, all runners with the Houston High School girls cross country team will compete in the Class 3 race at the state championship meet.

That’s because the Lady Tigers took second at the Class 3 District 2 championships Saturday (Nov. 1) at El Dorado Springs.

“I couldn’t be more proud of these girls,” said Houston head coach Justin Brown. “They’ve stuck to the process and bought into everything, and really got into it and did their jobs.”

Freshman Lyla Huffman led the Lady Tigers again, placing second in a field of 87 runners with a time of 19:29.40 on the 5,000-meter course at El Dorado Springs High School. Next across the line for Houston was senior Lilly Kincaid in 15^th at 22:19.57 and sophomore Jessyn Allen in 21^st at 22:45.88. All three earned All-District status, and Kincaid and Allen posted personal-record times.

Rounding out the Lady Tigers’ team score were senior Natalie Clinton in 37^th and junior Adyson Dailing in 43^rd.

Houston scored 86 points in the race. Osage took first in the team standings with 52 points and Springfield Catholic was third with 89.

After joining the team barely less than two months ago, Dailing has already made her mark as a valuable fifth runner. She passed two Catholic runners not far from the finish line to help the Lady Tigers beat the Lady Irish by a mere three points.

Houston came into the meet ranked third in the district, while Catholic was ranked second.

“I told the girls we just had to go out there and be resilient through the whole race,” Brown said. “I told them it would take every one of them to get the job done, and they went out and did it. It’s a testament to the hard work and dedication these girls have shown all year.”

Fair Grove junior Katrina Cantwell won the race with a time of 19:14.70. In her first season of high school racing, Huffman has won six times and placed second four times, finishing closely behind Cantwell in three of those runner-up finishes.

Huffman led for a while in the district race, but Cantwell eventually took over and went on to victory.

In the boys race, senior Jack Sawyer paced the Tigers, finishing 38^th in a field of 116 with a time of 18:40.49. Junior homeschooler Marcus Posant was next for Houston in 40^th, while senior Jackson Evetts came in 66^th, sophomore Gage Smith placed 82^nd and sophomore Christopher Meier placed 86^th.

Hollister senior Sinry Mendoza won, sprinting to a time of only 15:37.18, while Springfield Catholic junior Kyle Hathcock was second at 16:24.57.

Springfield Catholic took the team district title, while Osage placed second and Fair Grove finished third.

The state championship meet is set for Friday and Saturday at Gans Creek Cross Country Course in Columbia. Classes 3, 4 and 5 compete on Friday (Nov. 7) and Classes 1 and 2 run on Saturday. The Lady Tigers will run Friday at 9:45 a.m. in the Class 3 girls race.

Last year, Houston came in last in the Class 3 team standings at state.

“We’ve still got work to do,” Brown said. “I said to the girls, let’s just go out there and do our best and see if we can’t be in the middle of the pack. There are some hungry teams out there with a lot of talent, but we can improve from last year and we’re going to be ready to go Friday morning.”