Hounds outrun stacked field, Lady Hounds top region foes in Rancher’s Release the Hounds Invitational
Brad Harrison sports@jcnews.com
Setting goals is one thing.
Meeting them is a whole other effort. But in Saturday’s Rancher’s Release The Hounds Invitational, both the Greyhounds and Lady Greyhounds attacked and met the standard that they had set for themselves.
The Greyhoynds won the large-division boys race, edging Starr’s Mill as Jones County placed four runners inside the top 10. The Lady Hounds’ third-place finish matched a metric that they had set coming into Saturday morning as their overall showing was good enough to beat Ola and Woodland, two teams expected to be the toughest foes in pursuit of a region title.
“The boys’ goal was to win the meet. Starr’s Mill was here, and they were preseason ranked No. 1 in the state,” Jones County cross country head coach Geoff Moore said.
The Greyhounds welcomed the challenge from Starr’s Mill, a team that decided in the past few weeks to be in Gray on Saturday due to a schedule conflict.
That challenge suited the Greyhounds fine. “I was kind of glad they were there because that’s great competition. They’re a well-organized program. You can tell when you see them,” Moore said. “That’s the best team that has ever been here other than Pace Academy, so to beat them, that was big-time.”
Luke Thornton’s fourth-place finish on a time of 16:01.60 certainly helped the cause of Jones County and its average time of 1:22.34.53, but the race was won thanks to the Greyhounds’ depth. The Greyhounds’ fourth and fifth-place finishers came in a combined eight spots better than Starr’s Mill’s fourth and fifth runners with Grady Newby coming in 10th at 16:42.51 and Tyler Marshall one spot behind at 16:50.25.
That, combined with Shaun Williams in seventh place and Gavin Robinson in eighth on times of 16:25.58 and 16:34.59, enabled the Greyhounds to do enough to fend off a stellar field of runners. Jones County’s sixth runner, Clay Lacy, further cemented the Greyhounds’ depth with a time of 17:00.60 in 14th
“We didn’t have a perfect race, but our depth is what won it for us,” Moore said. “They had three guys in front of our No. 2, but we beat them on the back end and we won by two points. We would have beaten them in a tie with our sixth guy. It’s just an example of our depth and how well these guys run together.”
As for the youth-laden Lady Hounds, Saturday showed that they may be progressing ahead of schedule, staying right with Starr’s Mill and Harris County and, more importantly, getting a finish in front of an Ola team that they’ll have to get the better of in November during the sectionals in Gray that will also crown region champions.
“Our goal was to beat Ola,” Moore said. “They’ll be our (region) competi tion. For all the attrition that we had from losing three runners from last year, our goal was to win against them, and they put it to them. They have some confidence going into next month.”
Addison Robinson’s 19:52.94 led the Lady Hounds as she finished fourth, but there was more to Jones County’s day than one individual effort with a total of four runners finishing within the race’s top-20. Tanner Watts was 14th with a time of 21:25.34, one spot better than Mary Barnwell’s 21:25.97. Macie White was 19th on a time of 22:14.99 with runs of 22:40.39 and 22:56.13 giving Makenzie Snook and Catelen Myers finishes of 23rd and 26th.
“We’ve had really good leadership from our two seniors. Our freshmen girls remind me a lot of our boys when they were freshmen,” Moore said. “They do a really good job of sticking together when they’re running.”
Waters, Russell lead way in JV race
Jones County turned in strong finishes during the JV portion of Satur day’s Rancher’s Release The Hounds Invitational. Dalton Russell (18:47.62) and Tripp Arnold (20:21.62) were fourth and 17th in the boys race. Allie Waters took fourth in the JV girls race, running a 24:47.67 with top finishes of seventh and ninth coming via Jordan Norman Brown (25:41.64) and Sophie Dixon (25:21.83).
