By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor
Four Cabot Panthers finished in the Top-15 and one Lady Panther finished second at the Conway Wampus Cat Cross Country Invitational on Saturday at Beaverfork Lake Park.
The Cabot boys and girls finished second in the team competition.
Cabot junior Casey Gore finished her 5K in 19:57, 13 seconds behind winner Rachel Barnhardt of Greenbrier.
Another local runner, Gracie Hyde of Lonoke, was just six seconds behind Gore for third place out of 205 competitors.
Lady Panther Brayden Giesler also turned in a nice run, finishing 15th with a time of 21:39.
The Cabot boys’ highest finisher was junior Greyson Kaufman, who ran a 17:17 for ninth place, but his teammates, senior Jordan Woodson, junior Blake Scott and junior Gardner Howze, weren’t far behind. Woodson ran a 17:32 for 12th place. He was one second ahead of Scott, who finished 13th.
Howze ran a 17:36 for 15th place.
Bryant senior John Carder won the race with a time of 16:22, while Heber Springs won the boys’ team competition.
Heber Springs sophomore Parker Ables finished second at 16:42, and his teammate Jesse Applewhite was third at 16:48 out of 221 athletes in the boys’ race.
Other local athletes performed well also. Beebe’s Gus McCoy finished in 19th place while Cabot’s Stuart Nickell and Jace Patsel were 26th and 28th respectively.
Cabot’s Aiden Treherne and Alec Robinson finished 34 and 35, and Beebe’s Sean Langley placed in the Top-40 by finishing 38th.
Bryant won the girls’ team competition. The Lady Hornets’ top five runners finished with an average time of 21:51, while Cabot’s top five averaged 22:04. Harrison took third, Mount St. Mary fourth and Conway fifth out of 21 schools that entered enough runners to qualify for team results.
Heber Springs boys averaged 17:21 to beat Cabot’s 17:36. Little Rock Christian Academy finished third, Bryant fourth and Vilonia fifth out of 16 teams in boys’ competition.
