Cross Country Season Starts with a Bang

Runners from both the high school and junior high teams medaled in the first two races of the year.

The SWCCCA Richard Clark Invitational was Saturday, September 3, 2022, at the Bolivar Golf Course. Gretchen House placed second, Rae Little placed third, and Lexi Loveland placed sixth in the Class 1 varsity division.

Eighth-grader Beth Sisco ran a course PR, running over three minutes faster than last year. Freshmen Connor Cantrell and Mikhail Mandelli placed forty-sixth and fifty-first in their division, respectively.

The Steve Waggoner Invitational was Thursday, September 8, 2022, at the Willow Springs Golf Course. The junior high girls team placed second overall. Seventh-graders Thayor Little and Bryson Lafferty placed sixth and seventeenth, respectively, medaling in the junior high boys division. Eighth-grader Maddy Sallee placed eleventh with a course PR and Kailyn Hillman placed twentieth, both medaling in the junior high girls division.

Gretchen House placed second, Rae Little placed fourth with a course PR, and Lexi Little placed tenth in the Class 1 varsity division.

Connor Cantrell placed eleventh, beating his course PR by over a minute, and Mikhail Mandelli placed twenty-ninth.

Junior high and high school cross country coach Jenny Gardner said, “Out of the gate, our athletes are representing Chadwick very strongly across the board. We have a very bright future. I love to see the team excited to race and supporting each other in practice and competition.”

“I want to see each athlete stepping up and at the end of the season finishing stronger than what they started. I tell them before every race, ‘Know what you can do, show yourself what you can do,'” she said.

The high school roster consists of freshmen Connor Cantrell and Mikhail Mandelli; sophomores Gretchen House and Rae Little; and junior Lexi Loveland.

The junior high roster consists of sixth graders Emma Herd, Elynn Lowery, Delaney Procell, Calie Johnson, and Graham Preston; seventh graders Thayor Little, Dalton Little, Bryson Lafferty, Wyatt Lantz, Hoyt Forbes, and Kailyn Hillman; and eighth graders Beth Sisco and Maddy Sallee.

-Gretchen House