Ozark County runners compete at districts
Ozark County runners from Bakersfield, Dora and Gainesville High Schools made the trip to Ironton to compete in district meets held at Arcadia High School Saturday, Oct. 29. Some of those runners are advancing to the Class 1 State Cross Country Championship meet at Gans Creek Cross Country Course in Columbia on Saturday, Nov. 5.
Dora
Dora hauled home a slew of medals and wrote new school history when the Lady Falcons cross county team took third to pave their way to state for the first time ever. “It was a very exciting day,” said Dora Coach Sheree Nold. “They are the first-ever full girls team to advance from Dora High School.”
Dora also had four individual runners qualify for state – siblings Autumn, Cade and Joshua Nold, along with Emma Martin. Autumn, Cade and Joshua are the children of Dora coach Sheree Nold. “The three siblings will have fun running at the state meet together since this is Autumn’s senior year,” Nold said.
Emma is the daughter of Timothy Martin and Abigail Buchholz of Sycamore.
Nold said nine of her runners hit new personal records at the district meet.
Bakersfield
Two Bakersfield Lions are headed to the state cross country meet after the Class 1 District 1 meet at Ironton on Saturday, Oct. 29.
Sophomore Callie Smith placed 29th with her time of 23:18 and sophomore CJ Carey, son of Coach Tammy Lamb, took 25th with his time of 18:21.
BHS Coach Tammy Lamb said every member of her team set new personal best times at the district meet. “They all worked hard,” she added. “We have a very young team and are looking forward to the future.”
Gainesville
The Gainesville Bulldogs varsity cross country runners competed in the Class 2 District 1 meet. While the Bulldogs didn’t have any runners place in the top 30 to advance to the state competition, they had several runners hit personal best finishing times.
“Sometimes the measure of success doesn’t show up on a podium or with a medal around the neck – it shows in the attitude, sportsmanship and improvement from the athletes from the first race of the season through the last race,” said GHS Coach Gary Emrick. “The improvements have been huge and solid up and down the roster. We’re very excited to see what unfolds next season.”
Ryder Murphy set a new PR of 18:59 and placed 37th out of 102 runners. Isaac Pippin was 41st with 19:13. Aaron Kahl finished in 20:08 (PR); John Botts-Papke in 20:11; Lyle Pippin in 20:27; Brady Myers in 20:31 (PR); Nick Goodson in 20:44 (PR); and Alyssa Smith in 22:46 (PR).