Monticello Live

By Caden Fitzgerald and Mia Reginelli
MHS Journalism
The MHS Cross Country team started their season this weekend in Little Rock. On September 12, junior high and senior high runners ran the Little Rock Classic at War Memorial. This was their first competition of the 2020 season.

Junior Sam Bostain ran the 3.1 mile course in 21:45 minutes. For the senior high girls, sophomore Cantley Gosdin ran the course in 23:22 minutes coming in 18 out of the 148 runners. Freshman runner Kaleb Romero ran the 2 mile junior high course in 13:05, placing him 15 out of 208 competitors. In the junior high girls’ division, Lillian Fletcher (8th grade) ran a 16:01 coming in 22 out of 177 runners. 

Monticello finds itself in a new position this year with a new coach and a new team.  Coach Cody Rowland took over this year after the departure of Coach Shawn Curtis.  Without all runners participating on Saturday, the junior high boys were the only ones able to earn points for a team score. Junior high runners finishing out the boys’ team along with Romero included Hayden Harrison, Luke Hairston, and Darius West, and Blaine Brown.

In addition to Lillian Fletcher, junior high girls running Saturday included Joselyn Camerina, Jada Rue West, and Sally Perez. Unfortunately due to the lack of runners, they were unqualified to score any points.

Other senior high runners competing in Saturday’s race were Fleure Perez (junior), Nathan Palmer (sophomore), and Johnny McClendon (sophomore).

The new coach has faced many challenges in this not-so-normal season.  “Our first meet was actually supposed to be September 5 at OBU, but with Covid causing OBU to cancel all fall sports, they also cancelled the meet.  SAU meet was cancelled, National Guard Meet was cancelled, and many more were switched to invitation only like the Lake Hamilton Invitational.  Another obstacle that COVID affected was that I wasn’t able to meet last year’s runners before we let out for summer break.  I wasn’t able to have a parent informational meeting due to health concerns and regulations on large number gatherings earlier in the year.  It also limited our summer practice schedule; teams will typically schedule practices in the spring and continue them throughout the summer.  Needless to say this was not a normal start to cross country and not the way I wanted to start my first season, but as with most stuff regarding this year you follow the health protocols and adjust as best as you can.”

 

 

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