Cross Country Shines at Meet

Mackenzi+Otakpor+%28left%29+and+Taylor+Hayes+%28Right%29+running+at+the+meet

Cassi Lindell

Mackenzi Otakpor (left) and Taylor Hayes (Right) running at the meet

In their second meet of the season, the Eagles cross country team competed in the 2016 DBU Patriot XC Invitational Saturday at the Mansfield Sports Complex.

Head coach Michelle Womack has high expectations for this season, as the team has been working very hard in practice.  “We are returning a large number of veteran runners for both teams. We have been practicing very well and it has shown so far, athletes have been displaying times better than the previous year,” Womack said.

The girls varsity race had a great showing out of freshman Mackenzie Otakpor with a time of 20:45. “Being the new kid on the team is ok, but since I’m on varsity and I’m beating some of the upperclassmen.  It feels great,” Otakpor said.

Taylor Hayes, sophomore, had a good race by leading her team with her 8th place finish and 2nd overall team standing. “The race was good, I was able to keep my pace the whole way through, and had enough to kick at the end,” Hayes said.

The Boy’s Varsity finished 4th overall as a team. Senior, Roland Brookby, recorded a time of 18:23.  “The race went well, I was able to keep my teammates in reach, as well as having a strong finish at the end,” Brookby said.

Seven seconds behind Brookby was freshman, Zane Darden, who rounded out the varsity field. “I probably could have paced myself better at the start of the race, but I was able to recover and catch up to my teammates,” Darden said.

The JV also did well finishing 2nd overall and were led by freshmen Torrence Meeks.