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Kennett cross country team competes at Notre Dame Invitational
Kennett’s Harrison Dalton races at the Notre Dame Invitational Saturday.
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - A short-handed Kennett high school cross country team competed at the Notre Dame Invitational in Cape Girardeau Saturday.
Kennett’s Alex Yates runs at the Notre Dame Invitational Saturday.
“We finished 16th out of 16 teams in the boys’ varsity race,” Kennett cross country coach Fred Garmon said. “16th out of 16 sounds like a beatdown, and it was exactly that—a beatdown—but we were still missing three of our top five runners at Notre Dame. We knew going into the meet that we wouldn’t be as competitive in team scoring. Still, all the guys that ran Saturday ran well.”
Kennett’s Jonathan Jain eyes the finish line at the Notre Dame Invitational Saturday.
Alex Yates led the Indians for the second consecutive meet, finishing in 62nd place with a time of 19 minutes, 43 seconds. He was followed by Larry Payne (93rd place, 21:13), Brett Bradley (107th place, 22:46), Jonathan Jain (111th place, 23:21) and Harry Dalton 115th place, 24:44).
The individual champion was Blake Morris of Notre Dame, who turned the 5,000-meter course in 16:01. Herculaneum was first in team scoring.
“With our full team, we would have expected to finish in the top half of the field,” Garmon added. “Saying that doesn’t take anything away from how the guys raced. Brett Bradley cut 56 seconds off his time from this meet last year, Alex Yates was 44 seconds faster than his 2017 time, and freshman Harry Dalton turned in his best time of the season so far. Larry Payne showed that he’s consistently one our top runners, and cross country veteran Jonathan Jain is returning to the form we expect of him, too.
“We race at the Saxony Lutheran Invitational on Thursday and we hope to have Kobe Patterson, Carson Blansett, and Ronaldo Guerrero back in action by then,” Garmon continued. “Those guys are all upperclassmen with lots of cross country experience, and if they run, we should be back among the top in team scoring.” Racing at the Saxony Lutheran Invitational begins at 4 p.m. at Jackson City Park.
Kennett’s Bretty Bradley runs at the Notre Dame Invite Saturday.