Huntsville dominates Bob Jones Invitational Cross Country Meet
Huntsville runner Chris Roberts led Bob Jones' Tyler Payton at the 4K mark and went on to win
On Saturday morning, Huntsville High School’s cross country team did what their football team could not do on Friday night. Huntsville dominated both the boys and girls varsity races and won team titles for both teams at the Bob Jones Invitational Cross Country Meet held at the Patriots home course.
In the girl’s race, Bob Jones’ Vanessa Cardwell led early but was hampered when one shoe came untied. A group of Huntsville runners stalked Cardwell through the middle section of the course and passed her after 3K mark. Emily Pullen set a fast pace and crossed the finish line at 20:56. She was followed less than a second later by her teammate Cassidy Coghlan.
A happy and excited Pullen led six Huntsville runners who finished in the top 10.
“I started this year and I was doing ok but I had never come in first so this is my first win,” Pullen said. The senior picked up a medal, T shirt, and a team trophy for the first place finish by the Huntsville girls.
Allie Smith was the top Bob Jones finisher with a time of 21:38 good for fifth. “She is really good,” Smith said of the winner. “I was really strong in the first part and in the middle I kind of backed off and toward the finish I caught some people and I felt I had a really good finish”
Courtney Moffett, of Bob Jones, finished sixth. James Clemens placed 4 girls in the top 26 finishers led by Casey Campbell in twelfth. Isabella McLay finished 16th, Cassidy Bates 23rd, and Ella Engstrom at 26th.
In the boy’s race, Huntsville again took top spot with Chris Roberts coming in with a time of 17:13. He was followed by Tyler Payton of Bob Jones who finished at 17:22.
Roberts led throughout the race with Payton following closely but never overtaking him.
“He was going pretty fast,” Payton said. “I got really tired at the end. That’s an improvement over what I ran last week in Nashville, 18:30,” Payton added. “I’m happy with the improvement but I’m still not where I was before I got sick. I’m still having some congestion.”
Schyler Schmidt was the top finisher for James Clemens with a time of 18:27.
