By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor
Cabot runners took the top two spots and six of the top 10 in the high school girls division of the Cabot Invitational 4K cross country race Tuesday at Central Elementary in Cabot. The boys division was dominated by Searcy, which had the top three runners in the four-team event.
“We just had a small event this year and didn’t really keep team scores, but I thought our girls ran really well,” Cabot cross country coach Leon White said. “The Searcy boys were also very impressive. They’re going to have a strong team in 6A this year.”
Cabot junior Micah Huckabee blistered the field with a time of 17:00.43. Only one other runner was within 90 seconds of her, and that was sophomore teammate Samantha Nickell, who finished with a time of 18:29. Nickell’s own time was more than a minute faster than third place Taylor McGraw of Beebe, who recorded a 19:33 time.
Two Hot Springs Lakeside runners were fourth and fifth. Cabot’s Kaitlin Mayhair, Rachel Murtishaw and Ashley Odom were sixth, seventh and eighth. Beebe junior Trystan Taylor was ninth and Cabot senior Seaton Howard rounded out the top 10.
Ethan Clark won the boys’ event with a time of 15:10.91. His fellow junior Lions Thomas Castaneda and Tucker Windley were second and third.
Cabot junior Nick Davis was fourth, just two seconds behind Windley with a time of 15:39.72. Cabot sophomore Adam Stivers was fifth and Lakeside’s Austin Guthrie finished sixth. Four Panthers rounded out the top 10, with sophomore Caleb Schulte, senior Logan Boyer, sophomore Chris Owens and junior Riley Hillegas all finishing between 16:26 and 16:40.
“We’ve had some attrition on our boys team,” White said. “We’ve had a couple of really talented runners either get injured or just decided to focus on other sports. But we have some good ones left and we got one back that had left. So we still have a chance to be pretty good.”
Eighth-graders dominated the girls’ junior-high race, which was only a three-kilometer race. Cabot North’s Tristyn Edgar won with a time of 12:09.64. She just beat teammate Bailey Lebow by less than five seconds. Lakeside’s Emily Milbourn was third and Cabot South’s Melanie Abbott took fourth place. Lakeside seventh grader Lindsey Davis was fifth. Cabot North freshman Courtney Crossland finished sixth, Beebe seventh-grader Marianna Firchey, Cabot South eighth-grader Casey Gore, Bri Martindill and Cabot South eighth-grader Taylor Peche rounded out the top 10.
Cabot teams dominated the boys’ junior high race, with North taking five of the top seven spots and South taking the other two. North eighth-grader Conley Hillegas won the event with a time of 11:03.74. His freshman teammate Jordan Woodson wasn’t far behind with an 11:07.13. Cabot South eighth-grader Gardner Howze, North eighth-graders Andre Jones, Stuart Nickell and Blake Scott, and south freshman Avery Bell round out the top seven, all with times under 11:43.
Beebe’s Gus McCoy, Cabot North’s Cody Burns and Lakeside’s Gideon Drake round out the top 10 of the 38-person field.
