Blog: Madeleine Biddle, Northwest Rankin


Things have been rather crazy lately, so I got a little behind on blogging, but I'm back on top of it! The season is starting to come to an end, and with that comes faster times. Northwest Rankin has had some crazy fast times the past two weeks! We raced last Tuesday at the Rankin County Championships, last Saturday at the Mid-South Middle School meet, and last night at regionals! We've had very impressive performances, and our times should be even faster at state next weekend!

At the Rankin County Championships, JJ Kaler had an amazing race and came in second with a 17:19. The finish was absolutely amazing. Our varsity boys ended up coming in third place overall. In the varsity girl's race, Skyler Ellis came in eleventh with a 23:05, finishing first on our team. Our girls also came in third place overall. In the middle school boys' race, Grayson Edwards came in first place with a time of 11:13. Our boys ended up coming in second overall. For our middle school girls, Makenzie Young finished in fourth place with a time of 14:07. They walked away with a three-point win over Pearl.

At the Mid-South Middle School Championships, both our Northwest Rankin Middle School teams finished in third place overall. Grayson Edwards won his race with a time of 11:20. John Sasser and Miles Williams also finished in the top twenty. Makenzie Young won the girls' race with a 14:03. Savanna Dinger and Sophia Savell finished in the top twenty for the girls' race. We have several promising athletes who will be moving up to run with varsity, and we are very excited to see how they do at the state meet!

Last night at our regional meet, we had one of the best races we have ever put together in my opinion. Our varsity girls team is looking very strong as we head into this year's state meet. Makenzie Young finished in fourth with a solid time of 22:12. Skyler Ellis followed in seventh place with a 22:42. Autumn DeHuff was just a few steps behind, coming in eighth with a 22:48. I finished in eleventh place with a new PR of 23:19. Audrey Hirschfield rounded out the top fourteen, coming in thirteenth with a 23:33. We ended up coming in second place overall, beating Madison Central for, I believe, for the first time at a regional meet.

In the boys' race, JJ Kaler finished in second place with a time of 17:09. JJ broke his own school record, which was a 17:12. Grayson Edwards finished in eighth place with an 18:08. Bryce Harrison came in thirteenth place with a time of 18:25. We ended up coming in third place overall.

The rest of this week's practices will just be the ones of us going to state, and I'm very excited to see what next weekend has in store with us. This is when we all really have to dig deep and push ourselves past our limits. It will be my last high school cross country race, and I am definitely going out with a bang. It is rather bittersweet, and I'm going to treasure every second of it. I wish you all the best of luck...whether it's also going to be your last high school meet or it's your first state meet. You will all go on to do wonderful things. I hope to see some of y'all next Saturday!

Until next week,

Madeleine Biddle, Northwest Rankin