Northern Heights’ girls cross country team, led by sophomore Kimberly Smith’s individual victory, won the Royal Valley Invitational last Thursday.
The Ladycats scored 36 points, best among the three squads eligible to post team scores. Smith won the 4K race by more than a minute, clocking a time of 15 minutes, 58.35 seconds. Royal Valley’s D’Neal Jensen was second with a time of 17:04.89. Elizabeth Karr, Savanna Chestnut and Ashley Heston finished in eighth, ninth and 10th place for Heights; Karr posted a time of 18:01.98, Chestnut clocked an 18:02.50 and Heston finished in 18:13.54. Chelsea Carr was 23rd. Heights junior varsity runners Megan Zimmerling and Desiree King turned in runs that would have put them in 29th and 31st places, respectively.
The Heights boys finished sixth out of six squads with 115 team points. Justin Heston led the Wildcats with a sixth-place finish, ending his run in 18:02.38. Brian Hultgren finished 17th with a time of 18:42.33. Dalton Rhoads finished 26th, Jon Lowder 32nd, Matthew Parks 46th and Michael Hawthorne 62nd.
For the complete story see the Gazette print edition or the online print edition at http://www.emporiagazette.com/pdf. To subscribe to the print edition or the online print edition go to http://www.emporiagazette.com/subscribe.