Michael Normand led the Hays boys with a fourth-place overall individual finish at the New Braunfels Invitational on Saturday. (Courtesy photo)
by JASON GORDON
The Hays boys and girls cross country teams each finished in seventh place in their season-opening meet Saturday at the New Braunfels Invitational.
Michael Normand led the Hays boys with a fourth-place overall individual finish in a time of nine minutes, 52 seconds in the 1.95-mile run.
Mariana Sigala paced the Lady Rebels with a fifth-place overall finish in a time of 11 minutes, 50 seconds.
“We got really strong performances from both of our top runners today,” Hays head coach Cliff Buckley said. “Mariana and Michael have been training extremely hard this summer and it was great to see that pay off for them. They have lofty goals for this season and I am going to try my best to help them achieve those goals.”
Buckley added it was good to see some familiar competition in New Braunfels.
“We knew we would be running with some really good teams right out of the gates and wanted to get a good look at two of the teams who advanced to Regionals last year in our district – Canyon and Smithson Valley,” he said. “Our district is really unique in that it is so deeply talented. The teams that advance to regionals usually have very strong showings. The Smithson Valley boys wound up 2nd in the state and the Canyon girls got 5th at region.”
Saturday rounding out the top finishers for the Hays boys were Ryan McSpadden (15th overall, 10:21), Tom Ayers (32nd, 10:47 senior), Logan Lindsey (54th, 11:10) and Tyler Andrade (56th, 11:21).
The Lady Rebels varsity team’s top finishers were Emily Crowell (17th, 12:25), Carly Hogue 37th, 13:06), Rose Hyak (45th, 13:27) and Marissa Sigala (48th, 13:48).
“It was the first meet of the year and we still have a lot of work to do,” Buckley said. “This was a good starting point for a lot of our kids who had never raced before. I could see that some of the kids were struggling but what I really liked is that none of them gave up. It is truly an amazing thing to see your kids giving you whatever they have and not holding back. This team has a lot of heart.”
The Hays junior varsity boys had a very good showing and took first place as a team led by freshmen Heath Agnew (1st), Jason Peed (4th) and Anthony Lewis(5th).
The Hays cross-country team will next travel to Vista Ridge to run a relay race under the lights Friday night.
