Lady Lions secure District 6-4A cross country championship, Lions earn regional berth

October 10, 2023 at 1:09 pm Derrick Stuckly

The regional bound Brownwood Lady Lions and Lions cross country teams [Photo contributed]

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STEPHENVILLE – The Brownwood Lady Lions captured the District 6-4A cross country team championship Tuesday morning at Stephenville City Park, amassing 34 points to the 54 of both Stephenville and Glen Rose, who shared second place.

A year ago, the Lady Lions were three points back of Glen Rose at the district meet and settled for a second-place team finish.

“I’m super proud of the way the girls went out and competed today,” said Lady Lions first-year cross country head coach Chelsy Lipsey. “I know they were disappointed not winning district last year so their goal all season has been to reclaim the district championship and I am so proud to see all of their hard work and dedication pay off.”

The top five scorers for Brownwood all finished in the Top 15 individually as Lady Lions Sidney Windham and Braycee Lee placed first and second with times of 13:51.98 and 14:05.78, respectively. Emma Stegemoller followed in sixth place with a time of 14:35.65 trailed by Talia Craff (11th, 14:57.89), Kate Tindol (14th, 15:07.7), Lyndi Biasiolli (16th, 15:12.73), and Kylea Karnes (26th, 16:25.58).

Mineral Wells came in fourth as a team with 80 points and Graham finished fifth with 134 points in the varsity girls competition.

In varsity boys action, the Lions finished third with 68 points to secure the third and final berth from District 6-4A from the Region I-4A meet in Lubbock on Oct. 24.

The Lions, making their second straight regional trip, finished behind Mineral Wells (30) and Stephenville (47) and placed ahead of Graham (86) and Glen Rose (126). Just last week, Graham finished ahead of Brownwood at Stephenville’s Thrill of the Hill meet at the same location.

Leading the charge for the Lions in third place was Bennett Windham with a time of 18:36.08 followed by Aidan Pena (11th, 19:41.09), Noah Lambert (17th, 20:38.39), Stephen Rodriguez (18th, 20:45.86), Caden Carnes (19th, 20:53.33), Mark Martinez (27th, 21:53.75) and Ty Tindol (32nd, 22:48.94).

“When your district results come down to only 20 minutes, you’re excited and anxious for the meet to begin,” said Lions third-year cross country head coach Will Parker. “Our guys handled the moment better than I could have imagined. All of our runners remained steady and on pace to run their race. I’m excited that for the first time in 10 years, we’re making back-to-back appearances at regionals. I can’t express how proud I am of this group of guys and what they accomplished today, and how selfless they are each and every single day.”

The JV girls run saw Brownwood place second as a team behind Stephenville with 48 points to the Honeybees’ 25.

Running for the JV Lady Lions were Haylee Adkins (2nd, 15:30.83), Montanna Ramsey (5th, 15:58.42), Alma Bernal (12th, 17:03.35), Madison Weckwerth (14th, 17:20.41), Kylie Arocha (17th, 18:38.55), Izzie Mendez (22nd, 19:07.19), and Maddie Hampton (25th, 24:56.6).

In the JV boys race, Brownwood came in third with 51 points to leave it behind Mineral Wells (32) and Stephenville (37).

Competing for the JV Lions were David Martinez (8th, 21:20.51), Easton Judkins (10th, 21:29.51), Braylon Harvey (11th, 21:35.86), Noah Pyle (15th, 22:46.23), Gio Diaz (16th, 22:46.61), and Kayden Hernandez (19th, 23:23.6).