Columbus cross-country teams finish seventh and eighth at Benton

The Columbus girls? and boys? cross-country teams finished seventh and eighth, respectively, at Saturday?s Benton Invitational in Atkins.

The Wildcat girls totaled 186 points and were seventh out of 11 teams. Senior Caitlin Chaney, who finished 29

^th

in 17:07, led Columbus. Junior Taylor Hills came in 32

^nd

in 17:35, and sophomore Claire Hamilton was 36

^th

in 17:51. Freshmen Grace Chapman and Ashley Canny finished 44

^th

and 45

^th

, respectively. Chapman clocked a time of 18:28, and Canny finished one second later.

Columbus head coach Steve Riley was pleased that the spread between Chaney and Canny was just 1:22.

Junior Yvette Aguilar finished 32

^nd

in the junior varsity race with a time of 19:43, and Almas Frias came in 76

^th

in 22:19.

The Columbus boys totaled 194 points and were eighth out of 10 teams. Juniors Eli Sents and Efrain Barajas were the top finishers, coming in 16

^th

and 19

^th

, respectively. Sents finished in 18:24, and Barajas crossed the line eight seconds later. Freshman Josh Keller came in 51

^st

in 20:16, and senior Mitchell Roush was 53

^rd

in 20:33. Junior Dalton Howell rounded out the scoring with his 55

^th

-place finish in 20:39.

Freshman Curtis Fuller came in 59

^th

in the junior varsity race with a time of 22:42, and Omar Benitez was 64

^th

in 23:29. Adrian Santos finished 87

^th

in 26:49, and Andy Smith was 95

^th

in 29:11.

?Across the board, varsity and JV, we had runners improve from last year?s meet here and from last week,? Riley said. ?Our boys in particular. Of the ones who ran here last year, they averaged 56 seconds faster this year. The hard work they are putting in is paying off.?