Lake Hamilton swept the varsity races at the Wampus Cat Invitational Saturday in Conway while the junior high girls finished fourth and junior high boys sixth.
Senior Evan Armitage (16:03.8) finished just under six seconds behind Cabot senior Phillip Garcia (15:57.9) to lead the Wolves in a 12-point win over the Panthers. Lake Hamilton scored 60 points with three runners in the top 10 while Cabot (72), Russellville (73), Bryant (92) and Conway (124) rounded out the top five teams.
Senior Zeke McCain (16:24.1) finished third with junior Nathan Miller (16:49.8) eighth to round out the Wolves' top three runners.
Lake Hamilton junior Olivia Pielemeier took a dominant win as her 18:21.4 finish was 1:21.5 faster than Russellville's Brooklyn Nicholson (19:42.9) in second. The Lady Wolves had just two in the top 10 but saw five in the top 15 scoring runners as the team scored 46 for the win as Conway (66), Bryant (71), Benton (99) and Russellville (126) rounded out the top five teams.
Freshman Audrey Herrell (19:56.8) was fourth overall with senior Maylin Reyes (21:10.4), freshman Lani Inman (21:26.1) and junior Blair Turpen (21:32.0) finished 13th, 15th and 16th overall, respectively.
Eighth-grader Rylee Burns (14:18.5) was sixth to lead Lake Hamilton (125) to a fourth-place win as the team's only runner in the top 10. Bryant (57) won the team competition with Vilonia (78), Cabot (100) and Russellville (126) rounding out the top five teams.
Freshman Chay Menzies (12:57.4) in 18th was the top finisher for the junior Wolves, whose team score of 162 left them sixth. Bryant took a 65-point win with a team score of 35 while Russellville (100), Vilonia (115), Conway (117) and Benton (132) rounding out the top five.
LAKESIDE COMPETITIVE AT CHILE PEPPER
Lakeside's boys and girls cross country teams finished 20th and 27th, respectively, in the Chile Pepper Cross Country Festival, a series of races that drew runners from all over the country.
Max Girardet, a senior from Central Catholic High School in Portland, Ore., won the boys El Caliente race in 14:55.5, leading his school's team to a team win with 72 points. Fayetteville (219) was the top team from Arkansas while the Rams were 20th with 560 points.
Senior Dylan Dew finished 22nd overall out of 472 runners, leading the Rams and garnering 18 points for the team with his time of 15:43.8. Sophomore Joseph Bariola (16:07.9) was the team's only other runner finishing in the top 100.
Cayden Dawson, a senior from Bixby High School in Bixby, Okla., won the girls race with a time of 17:28.2. Southlake Carroll, from Southlake, Texas, picked up the team win with 134 points, Bentonville (258) leading Arkansas with a fifth place finish while the Lady Rams were 27th with 733 points.
The Lady Rams were led by a pair of freshmen -- Maya Hubbard (20:18.9) who was 103rd overall and Annabel Sarver (20:36.0) who was 123rd.
GAC ANNOUNCES WEEKLY GOLF AWARDS
Oklahoma Baptist's Valentina Nunez-Butzonitch picked up the league's women's golf award whlie Southwestern Oklahoma State's Gregor Weck earned the men's award.
Nunez-Butzonitch earned medalist honors at the Oklahoma Baptist Fall Invitational, defeating Arkansas-Monticello's Worawalan Siwaiyapram in a two-hole playoff after chipping in on the 18th hole to force the playoff.
Weck tied for fourth at the Missouri Southern State Men's Fall Invitational, recording a pair of sub-par rounds and ending the 54-hole match at 1 under. He also tied for second in the 100-payer field with 13 birdies, five of which he picked up in Tuesday's final round.
SAU SWEEPS XC WEEKLY AWARDS
Southern Arkansas' Catherine Benavidez and Rob Kraus picked up the GAC's women's and men's cross country weekly awards.
Benavidez finished second in the Lois Davis Invitational at SAU, recording a personal best of 19:31.7 to lead the Muleriders to a 55-point win in a meet it has won six times in 11 years.
Kraus picked up his first career win at the Lois Davis Invitational with a personal best of 25:28.5. The finish was 43.7 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher to help lead the Muleriders to a 37-point win, the largest margin of victory in meet history.