Lady Cats capture Lubbock Invitational title

Staff report

LUBBOCK — Clovis High’s girls waded through 14 other teams and put five runners in the top 20 on Saturday to win the large-school division of the Lubbock Invitational cross country meet.

The Lady Wildcats had 62 points to finish 12 ahead of runnerup Coppell, Texas. CHS coach Mark Bussen said it’s the second time the Clovis girls have won the event.

Freshman Kelsey McNaughton led the Lady Cats, placing fourth in a field of 103 runners over five kilometers with a time of 19 minutes and 27 seconds. Sophomore Catherine Hisel was 10th (19:58), while junior Holly Steinle (13th), sophomore Mya Borwick (15th) and junior Emily Gonzales (20th) all broke the 21-minute barrier.

“It’s the first time in the history of our program that I’m award of that we had five girls under 21 minutes in a 5K race,” Bussen said.

The event included 12 varsity boys and girls divisions, based on size of school, and three JV divisions with more than 1,000 runners in the competition.

“I just told the girls that they need to keep having fun,” Bussen said of his relatively young squad. “They just need to keep running and improving.

“It’s something to have that many kids running that fast.”

Meantime, the CHS boys came in 12th out of 16 teams with 259 points. District 6-4A rival Hobbs, the only other non-Texas school in the event, easily took team honors with 45 points to 116 for Midland High.

Sophomore Harrison Rikel led the Wildcats, placing 34th in 17:04. A total of 110 runners competed.

“They ran well today,” Bussen said of the Cats. “It’s just so competitive at this meet.”

Clovis runners return to action on Friday at the Highland Invitational in Albuquerque.