South Panola XC Classic - Individual Recap
BATESVILLE, Miss. --- Jessica Cartwright of Hernando High School and Gavin Brown of Desoto Central High School won the varsity races at the 2022 South Panola XC Classic.
RESULTS: 2022 South Panola XC Classic - Varsity Girls
Cartwright opened up her season with a winning time of 20:28.9, barely missing the course record set by her teammate Riley Jackson two years prior. This is a solid early-season performance for Cartwright as she has never opened up her cross country season with a win, and the future is looking bright for her.
As for the varsity boy's race, those results have not been uploaded yet, and all we know is that Gavin Brown of Desoto Central took home the gold. Regardless of the time, this is a solid outing from Brown, and we should keep our eyes on him and teammate Kaleb Tackett as the season progresses.
What we called versus what actually happened:
MileSplit Mississippi predicted a Hernando High School individual win, but who would be leading the team between Jessica Cartwright and Riley Jackson was the big question.
At South Panola, Cartwright took the dub with Jackson in fourth place. As mentioned above, Cartwright had a dominating presence in the race and a superb season opener. This may not have been up to Jackson's proven potential, but it is still very early in the season, and we're not going to waste any time looking into it as the time for big PRs isn't close to here yet - We're confident that Jackson will be there when it matters.
It was an easy choice to call that the Desoto Central duo of Brown and Tackett would be in the top three, as we knew they were fit going into the season due to some rumors of a quick intrasquad time trial. However, we ultimately called Tackett for the win, and Brown proved us wrong, and we commend both for their efforts. We could potentially see a dangerous duo in the making as the season goes on.
Once again, we do not know the full varsity boy's results.
South Panola XC Classic - Team Recap
photo credits: unknown
We're not going to say that we called this performance from Hernando High School whenever we talked about their potential in our preseason team rankings, as there was some doubt surrounding this team regarding their depth.
READ NEXT: Miss. H.S. Girls Preseason XC Teams - No. 2
With that being said, the Lady Tigers removed any doubt as they showed up and showed out at the 2022 South Panola XC Classic, sweeping the top five spots and scoring a perfect 15 to open up their season with a win.
They were of course led by their low stick Jessica Cartwright, but we also have to shout out junior Kaitlyn Burge and 8th-grader Kyleigh Carter, Hernando's No. 2 and 3 runners.
This was a big run for Burge as, according to our records, Burge has never run a race on the grass or track until the 2022 South Panola XC Classic. If that is the case, then Hernando just got a really good one.
As for Carter, this was also a great way to open up her season and step up to the plate as just a middle schooler.
*The Varsity Boys team results were not known during article publication*
What we called versus what actually happened:
Not too much to break down here - We called Hernando to win, and that's exactly what happened. As a matter of fact, they did so in a dominant fashion. All in all, we simply can't wait for them to race again.