South Pontotoc and Ocean Springs
Rhett Schimpf (1230) of Starkville won the South Pontotoc on a muddy and rainy day
Although some of the top seeds rested on the boy's side, there was still some great competition at South Pontotoc on Saturday. As expected, the race came down to Starkville's Rhett Schimpf and Saltillo's low stick J.J. Lincoln, the lone runners in the field that have broken 17 minutes in the 5k. The times may have been a little quicker, but the course was a little on the muddy side which didn't make for crazy fast times. The crazy thing is, if both of these 2 would have these times last season, that would have been very good performances. They both ran over 40 seconds than what they ran here last year. It has been great to see the progression that both Schimpf and Lincoln have made over the last year.
As expected, Saltillo High School crushed the team title, with their 5th runner already coming across the line 42 seconds after Lincoln in 8th place. They took down Starkville High School by 20 points.
Brookelyn Morgan
Just like numerous other teams earlier in the season, it was all Brookelyn Morgan as she nabbed her 4th win of the season. Although I didn't personally see the race, I would imagine she did what she always does - Leading from the gun and taking it out harder than anyone else would have liked. The quest for sub-19 continues for Morgan, but she does Pontotoc and Watson coming up in the next couple of weeks.
Even without their usual #1 Mia Card, Saltillo still dominated the team race. With Card momentarily out, junior Anna Caroline Crouch has stepped into the low stick role quite nicely, as she finished 2nd overall at South Pontotoc on Saturday, taking down MHSAA 4A State Champion Hannah Sanders. With Card eventually getting back in the lineup.
Moving over to the Ocean Springs Invitational, the upset winner of the girl's race was Ashton Rainey. Rainey has never broken 21 in her career until Saturday, and also completely jumped the 20-minute barrier as won in 19:53, taking down 800m ace Mallory Streetman by over 30 seconds. This was a huge breakthrough performance for Rainey in just her 3rd race ever and is looking to maybe shake things up in MHSAA 6A this year...
Rainey led a very strong Ocean Springs team who is perhaps looking to be named the #1 team in the state after their dominating win on Saturday, putting 5 in the top 6 and a 5k average of 20:39. Like Rainey and her individual goals, Ocean Springs could definitely give Pearl and Hernando a run for their money come championship season.
On the guy's side, as expected, Jack Hewes got his first win on the grass in his career - in just his 3rd race ever. As a matter of fact, Hewes has really found himself as a runner this season and has been throwing down some very impressive performances. A 16:18 5k is no joke - especially when it was almost a solo record and only 3 seconds off of Kevin Cooley's course record. With his most recent performances, Hewes is perhaps looking to shake up the new All-State 5k rankings coming out this Wednesday...