Going into the state meet, the Central Holmes girls cross country team was ranked No. 3 in Class AA.
But the Lady Trojans put together their best meet of the season and captured the Class AA cross country state championship for the third straight year on Tuesday at Choctaw Trails at Mississippi College.
Leading the way was sophomore Breann Bell who finished first overall with a time of 20:44.10. It was also Bell’s third straight individual championship.
The Lady Trojans had 15 runners in the meet but only the top five finishers count towards the team score.
“This is our third year in a row to win it,” Central Holmes coach Niki Edwards said. “This year we were actually the underdogs going in. They had us ranked third going in. We had ran in a couple of meets but had never put up any good times. And we had never really everybody there. We knew that Lamar Christian was going to be the team to beat. But we were able to put up our best times at the state meet.”
Also placing for Central Holmes was Hayley Half who was seventh with a time of 24:09.98, seventh grader Ashlyn Tate was 10th overall and had a time of 24:38.99, freshman Aubrey
Carr who was 13th overall with a time of 24:55.29 and sixth grader Daynie Parrish finished 20th overall with a time of 25:49.29.
“I’m really proud of these young ladies,” Edwards said. “It’s hard to get kids to come out and do this when they know they have to run four miles a day. It was different this year because the distance was longer. It’s hard to train. I may try another method next year so they don’t have to do so much at one time.”
Also competing for the Central Holmes girls were Cameron Martin (23, 26:45.36), France Smith (30, 27:17.66) Ryleigh Scott (27:27:04), Hattie Melton (27:27.81), Audrey Tate (28:44.63), Makalah Sumner (29:11.08), Kate Riley (29:22.01), Anna Duke (32:51.85), Rylee Sizemore (33:01.65) and Gracie Burrell (35:31.94).
The Central Holmes boys finished third in the state as well. Leading the way for the Trojans was eighth grader Sean Harrell who finished in 11th place with a time of 21:45.08. He was followed by seventh grader Mason Wiysel in 16th place with a time of 22:21.05. Seventh grader Cayton Edwards was 19th with a time of 23:27.64 while seventh grader Ashton Tate was 21st overall with a time of 23:48.67. Seventh grader John Ward finished 23rd with a time of 24:01.62. Other finishers for the Trojans were Cloton Sumner (25:21.98), Hayes Hester (25:40.20), Gibson Parrish (27.01.42), Josh Robinson (27:20.71), Jurdan Engle (28.31.09) Bennett Word (29:09.30) and Kade Ward (35:14.31).
