Linden-Kildare XC competes at Hallsville, McLeod

Hallsville

On Sept. 11, Linden-Kildare’s cross country teams traveled to Hallsville to compete and display L-K pride.

The program had an amazing time competing against some much larger schools and proved that they are TIGER STRONG.

First up was the varsity girl competitors: Madi Bynum, Charis Minson, Clarissa Peterson and Hailey Lane who all ran as individuals against 158 other varsity girls.

Both Madi Bynum (16:31.7) and Charis Minson (16:31.9) dashed their way across the finish line just tenths of seconds behind one another.

Clarissa and Hailey fought their way through the endless trails in the woods to finish with improved times.

Awaiting a 3-mile run was the varsity boys’ team: Logan Grandmaison, Cadin Johnson, Nic Lane, JaKyrik Nard, Dillon Roberts and Polo Ugalde.

These young men showed heart and pushed their way through 154 other varsity runners.

“To say we’re doing great things, is an understatement,” Head Coach Carla Hines said.

Dillon Roberts continued to drop his time and places his sights on advancing from district to regionals. Logan Grandmaison sprinted his way to the finish never looking back and dropped his time as well.

Not only did varsity compete well, but so did the L-KJH Tigers.

“The junior high girls’ XC team really was impressive. I can’t brag enough on how dedicated this group of young ladies are. We are going places,” exclaimed Coach Hines.

The junior high girls’ team consists of: Alexis Benton, Summer Gibson, Carley Hays, Marisol Nunez, Kalysa Roberts, Hannah Snow, Emma Stewart, Olivia Stewart, Nadia Turner, and Maggee Winters. These young ladies competed against 185 other runners “and” their very own Carley Hays ran a 15:29 and placed ninth overall.

That’s surely a great way to start the season. Right on Carley’s heels was Kalysa Roberts, Hannah Snow and Maggee Winters. These ladies beat out 130 runners.

Olivia Stewart, Emma Stewart, Summer Gibson, Marisol Nunez, Nadia Turner, and Alexis Benton went above and beyond to help their team plunge to the middle of the pack for team scoring.

“Our junior high ladies did an excellent job representing L-K in the most-high regards of school pride,” Coach Hines said.

Our junior high boys played a significant part in the day as well. The young Tigers were ready to leave their mark on the trails of Hallsville.

Eberado Padilla ran a 15:41 outrunning more than half the boy competitors. Closing in was Kolten Lemmon and Kiefer Phillips finishing strong after a rugged run through the woods. These guys ran with 202 other junior high guys.

McLeod

Linden-Kildare’s cross country program traveled to McLeod last Saturday to compete in the Cross Country Invitational.

Head Coach Carla Hines believes this group of athletes is making strives weekly to improve and are devoted to giving it their all.

The junior high girls’ team went above and beyond and clinched first place overall. The young ladies ran an exceptional race.

Carley Hays placed third with a time of 13:50, Kalysa Roberts was sixth at 14:35, Maggee Winters placed seventh at14:41, Hannah Snow ninth at 15:00, Makinnah Washington was 22nd at 17:52 and Olivia Stewart posted a time of 18:12. Summer Gibson, Marisol Nunez and Nadia Turner also competed.

The junior high boys’ individual competitors were Eberado Padilla (14:16), and Kiefer Phillips (18:00) who both ran a good race and showed so much school spirit.

Padilla placed in the top 20 and was a medalist.

The varsity girls’ team performed well and dropped times.

Medalist Madi Bynum placed seventh at 14:15 and Charis Minson placed 16th at 15:16.

Both competed well and walked away with improved times from last week’s meet.

Clarissa Peterson, Yedith Uribe, and Hailey Lane also dropped times helping the team finish fifth overall.

Dillon Roberts placed 11th and medaled for the varsity boys’ squad. He shaved off two minutes off his time from the previous meet.

Closing gaps and contributing to a third place team finish was: Cadin Johnson, Logan Grandmaison, Polo Ugalde and Nic Lane who all dropped their times.

The next event for the XC blue and white will be in the Atlanta Runnin’ Rabbs Meet on Saturday, Sept. 25.