CHS girls win Cleburne meet

SA Times - Over 600 runners from 62 boys and girls teams hit the trail early Saturday morning at the Angelo State Stampede Cross Country meet. Runners from junior high and up through high school varsity levels dotted the area adjacent to Foster Field with girls running a 2.5-mile course and the boys doing a 5,000-meter/3.1-mile circuit. The Central High School girls took five of the top-10 spots in the 4A/5A competition to take team honors over second-place Wall, the top-ranked Class 2A team in the state. Wall ran up in competition for this event.

Wall freshman Colleen Adams captured individual honors with a 12:40 time, topping Central's Alyssa Priest and Lake View's Shayla Vodron who finished second and third, respectively. "I took the lead about a quarter mile into it," said Adams, who finished eleven seconds ahead of Priest and 18 ticks in front of Vodron. "Everybody ran a good race today even though it was so hot." In her first competition against the "big girls" Adams was not intimidated. "No matter what the weather or competition, everybody has the same problems. You just have to handle it. Your teammates help you."

"I was a little worried the whole time. Alyssa and Shayla gave me a good race. I've been running with them since fifth grade, it's almost like running with my own team," the freshman added. "It seemed pretty long today," Central's Priest said. "It was hard to pace yourself well. It was a very hot day, maybe our hottest meet so far," the Bobcat senior added.

"I'm just real proud of them, they ran a great race," Bobcats coach Keith Meek said. "Wall has a great team and I was real impressed with them. We knew they'd be tough." Vodron left the meet quickly as she was feeling under the weather and was coming off a hectic Friday night that saw her crowned Lake View homecoming queen. "We didn't have enough girls to enter as a team," Chiefs Coach Tiffany Meek said. "We only had four runners today; we are missing one for volleyball and one is sick.""Shayla is our only senior," Meek added. "In the past she's been a front runner at a lot of meets. This was a good confidence-building week for her," Meek added.

In the 4A/5A boys event, Del Rio showed why it is ranked third in the state, taking four of the top five spots. Central's Bobby Hawes split the Rams foursome to take third place. Rams coach Ric Smith brought two boys and two girls teams to the event, their first entry in the annual meet. "I wanted to get our kids up here and get them some exposure to Angelo State. We have 14 of our former kids running in college now, but none here," Smith said. Del Rio brought 26 runners to Angelo State for the event while another 100 were in Eagle Pass at another meet. "I'm real pleased with how our two top boys got in there and ran with Del Rio," Central coach Meek added.