By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor
Cabot sophomore Micah Huckabee led the way as the Lady Panthers’ cross country team won the 7A Central conference meet Monday at Rolling Hills Country Club in Cabot. Huckabee easily took first place in the five-kilometer race with a time of 19:31.08, well ahead of Mount St. Mary’s Cally Cochran, who finished second with a time of 20:05.71. Cabot’s Marlene Sheehan, who took first place at Cabot’s last home meet, finished third overall with a time of 20:11.32.
Rounding out the top 10 in the girls race, which included 52 competitors, was Cabot’s Meagan Duncan and Samantha Nickell. Finishing almost side-by-side, Duncan’s ninth-place time was 21:17.01 and Nickell finished less than a second later at 21:17.91.
All four scored points for the Lady Panthers, with higher place finishers earning fewer points. The Cabot ladies won the meet with 33 points while Mount St. Mary’s scored 37.
Those two easily outpaced the rest of the field. North Little Rock took third place with 67 points with one top-10 finisher. Irenia Ball finished eighth with a time of 21:02.02. Lady Wildcat Lillian McEntire finished just outside the top 10 with a time of 21:24.95, good enough for 11th place.
Conway finished fourth with 80 points and Little Rock Central took fifth place with 131. The Tigers’ best finisher came in 19th place.
Catholic High dominated the boys race, taking 10 of the top 12 spots with only two Cabot Panthers breaking up a Rocket sweep. Cabot senior Scott Foltz pushed Catholic’s top two runners hard until the finish line. His time of 16:33.70 was barely a second behind winner Noah Findlay, and less than a second behind second place Colin O’Mara, who finished in 16:32.87.
Cabot sophomore Lee Sullivan finished fifth with a time of 16:43.57. Still, team scores were dominated by the Rockets. Catholic totaled just 20 points to beat second-place Cabot by 42. Again North Little Rock finished third and Conway fourth.
Fort Smith Southside took fifth and Fort Smith Northside was sixth, while Central finished last in the boys race as well.
North Little Rock’s top runner was Nicholaus Vasquez, whose time of 17:30.27 was good for 14th.
Cabot’s Madison McGregor and Ian McDonald finished 19th and 20th overall.
The state meet will be held on Saturday, Nov. 10 on the infield at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs.
