Cross Country Results…
The Running Royals opened the season in a big way on Saturday, September 6th at the Washington Wildcat Invitational Cross Country meet. The meet was held at the Equestrian Center in Pensacola. Senior runner, Micah Kemp, beat all competition from all classifications and won the overall boy’s race in a personal record of 16:19. He was followed by teammate Cody Wolfe, who also set a personal best time of 18:04 and finished 28th overall. Austin Gonzales finished with a time of 21:55 which was good enough for 93rd. Head Boy’s Coach Matt Dobson said, “I was proud of the individual performances by the boys today, especially Micah who won the race overall. He’s running really strong right now and is the best high school runner in all of Santa Rosa and Escambia schools”.
The Lady Royals had a strong finish by placing 9th out of 15 teams. Jessica Thornton led the girl’s team with a top 20 finish (19th) in a time of 21:45. Savannah Brown was second for the team finishing 31st place in a time of 23:03. Carsen Arrant finished 34th with a time of 23:12. And junior runner Jenna Thornton crossed the line in 23:34, which was good enough for 42nd. Other varsity runners were Carly Sanders (93rd) 28:47, RayAnn Free (96th) 29:23, and Kendra Weeks (98th) 30:18.
The Lady Royals also had three sixth-grade girls compete in the open/middle school race. Hannah Whitlock ran a fast 23:32. Jillian Thornton ran 23:52 and Katie Stanford ran 32:49. Abby Hendricks, a fifth grader from Jay ran 30:32. Head Girls Cross Country Coach, Teresa Dobson said, “The girls are off to a good start. We have to close the gap between the fourth and fifth runner and we will be an even stronger team. I was really impressed with the younger runners in the open race and feel like the future of cross country is going to get even better at Jay.” The Royals next meet will be at T.R. Miller High School in Brewton, Alabama on September 16th.
