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When the rain started falling and continued to fall this weekend, Felicity West knew conditions wouldn’t be ideal for Monday’s 6A-Central cross country meet. However, the Northside Lady Bear senior was more than determined to make the most of an unfavorable course. West did just that, as she came in second in the girls division at Monday’s meet at Ben Geren Park in Fort Smith. She finished with a time of 22:13.31, trailing only Conway’s Sara Holman, who came in first at 21:23.36. “I think I did pretty well; I definitely didn’t do my best, which it was really muddy out here, but it was a good race and I got to race against some strong people, so I’m happy with where I ended up,” West said. “Honestly, whenever it first started raining, I didn’t even really think about it, but I think it was probably Saturday evening when I started realizing, ‘OK, this course is probably going to be a lot tougher than I anticipated.’” West tied a career best with her second-place finish at Monday’s conference meet. “She really wanted to be the conference champion; she went out and ran really hard that first mile, but that girl from Conway is really, really good; she posted a high 18 time in the past. ... It was going to be tough sledding for (West), but Felicity’s the type of girl that’s up for a challenge,” Northside coach Jeff Lewis said. “She ran pretty tough with her for that first mile, then she kind of pulled away from her the second mile.” West added she wanted to finish strong for her last conference meet. “I just tried to push as hard as I could, and then the thought that this was my last high school conference meet kind of pushed me farther and made me do better,” West said. “I was just trying to finish.” Another Northside runner had an extremely high finish Monday. In the boys division, Grizzly senior Braeden Hindley finished fourth, coming in with a time of 16:55.55. “I feel like I ran pretty good; it wasn’t like a (personal record) or anything by any sorts,” Hindley said. “It was pretty muddy; it felt like every single step, it was just bringing up sludge so that was pretty tough to run in, but I was definitely pleased with my place and time through the tough course.” Hindley was just as thrilled to be able to run his last conference meet in his home city. “I ran here every single night this summer pretty much, so I had the whole course practically memorized,” Hindley said. “It was actually nice to race on it for once.” Hindley finished behind three Conway runners. Brady Pascoe was the overall champion, running it in 16:25.86, followed by Wampus Cat teammates John Sutton and Cade Swindle, who were second (16:47.03) and third (16:52.09), respectively. Despite the high finishes by both West and Hindley, Lewis was a bit disappointed in the times of several of his runners, due in large part to the wet and muddy course. “The times were off, anywhere from 30 seconds to a minute or better. ... When it’s dry, this is probably one of the top five fastest courses in Arkansas, but when you get six inches of rain over three or four days, it’s (tough),” Lewis said. Southside’s top boys finisher was senior Quinlan Broadway, who was 13th in a time of 17:50.62. “I’ve been really pushing it,” Broadway said. ”(Monday), I was trying to get out strong and just really go after it. ... I would say (the course) was a little challenging, but I just put it to where I could just really push through it and not really think about it as much.” Mavericks coach Aaron Kareus remarked that Broadway was able to continue a string of solid, steady races over the past two seasons. “Quinlan’s a worker; he comes out every day and he works hard, he comes to race,” Kareus said. “I’ve only had him for two years and he’s going to graduate; he didn’t run as a sophomore and he’s definitely improved his time and I think he’s got a lot more to give in his future of running.” Southside’s Isaac Teague was also 17th in the boys division with a time of 18:12.46. The top girls finisher for Southside was Judith Ramirez, who came in 25th (24:23.70). Northside’s Jennifer Hernandez was 28th in the girls division as well (24:31.21). Conway also won both the boys and girls team titles. Northside’s girls came in fourth place, while Southside’s boys placed fourth. Both Northside and Southside’s teams now get set to compete at the 6A state meet, set for Nov. 9 at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs.

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BUCK RINGGOLD

Times Record | 10/30/2019

PHOTO CREDIT: Brian D. Sanderford