If you are not already familiar with it, get used to hearing the last name Arnold. Riley and Avery have dominated the cross-country scene for Blue Eye, this year. And, Saturdays State Championship Meet was no different.
The sisters were again the class of the field. Running together the first two miles, Avery was just ahead of Riley at the mile mark, the two crossing at 6.02.65 and 6.02.70 respectively. By mile marker number two, It was Riley that had had just under a tenth of a second lead. By the end of the 5K (3.1 miles) course, it was Riley that claimed the individual state title crossing the tape at 20:07.99 and Avery next only ten seconds back. Did I mention the two are only freshmen?
The youngster theme continued as Freshmen would actually capture 4 of the top 5 spots in the race.
The Lady Bulldogs would place two more runners in the top fifteen of the team scoring. Braylynn Siercks was 8th (11th) and Olivia Labrier was 15th (22nd) . Skye Hobbs 47th rouned out the scoring. (Only a teams top 5 finishers count towards team points) Maddison Suffal was 71st… Good enough for a State Runners-Up finish for the team , just 13 points behind Kansas City Lutheran for the Class 1 State Title. The Lady Bulldogs did finish with the best average time in the field.
I mentioned the youth earlier. Its hard for any team to be younger than the Lady Bulldogs. Of the six ladies that competed FIVE are freshmen to go with one junior.
The Blue Eye boys had a fine day as well. The Bulldogs brought home a Fifth place finish. The were led by Chris Lemp and Ryan Cardenzana. School of the Ozarks’ Titus Thompson was second overall.
Hollister girls finished 13th in the Class 3 Meet.
