D'Iberville High School Invitational
HIGH SCHOOL BOYS
The D'Iberville Invitational saw some heavy hitters from the South as well as MRA's Will Triplett, the top runner in MSAIS 6A right now. The on-paper favorite, which was All-State #4 ranked Keegan Leverett, took the W somewhat easily running 16:45 on a hot day / hard course exactly a minute ahead of the next finisher. Anthony Smith, a 4:33 1600m runner and has been Ocean Spring's low stick this year, placed a solid 2nd in 17:45, and Biloxi's low stick Gary Mata placed 3rd in 17:56.
I'm sure Leverett wanted a faster time, but this was still an impressive performance nonetheless. A 16:45 in those conditions and mostly a solo effort is impressive nonetheless, and that has got to get him excited on how fast he will run with better competition and weather at Watson next weekend (That's right, Leverett is going to be there too).
Dallas Stricker of Heritage Christian took the upset 'MSAIS Win', besting Triplett by 13 seconds. Stricker is just coming off of a PR of 17:03 for 5k last weekend, a phenomenal 5k time for a freshman.
In the team battle, it could not have gotten any closer as Ocean Springs took it home from a 6th man tie. For those of you who do not know, when there is a tie in cross country, it then comes down to whichever team's 6th man finished in front of the other. The team that has the faster 6th man is the team that wins the tie. On Saturday morning in D'Iberville, it was Ocean Springs' Cody Ano that got the job done and secured the team title.
HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS
Although it was in a little bit different fashion, Ocean Springs swept the varsity team titles as the girl's squad handily won with a total tally of 19 points. Perhaps more impressively, this was done without last week's #1 and current All-state #6 ranked runner in the state, Ashton Rainey. If Rainey would have run, they could have possibly scored a perfect 15 points.
This was no problem for the Lady Greyhounds, though, as they put 4 in the top 4 which is extremely difficult to beat, and freshman Maya Messenger had no problem stepping up to the plate as she got the overall win in a very impressive 20:47.
This was Ocean Spring's 3rd team win in a row this season, remaining undefeated for the year. They will face their toughest competition yet as they will travel to Clinton next weekend and go up against Hernando, the top team in the state this year, as well as Jackson Prep and Pearl. They are very deep and insanely good at pack running, and if Ashton Rainey lines back up with them at Watson, this team is going to be downright dangerous on race day.