Cardinal teams sweep Nederland Cross Country Meet

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Cardinal teams sweep Nederland Cross Country Meet

Van Wade

The Orange Leader

NEDERLAND — Two local schools snared team championship trophies at the Nederland Cross Country Invitational Saturday.

Both the Bridge City boys and girls went up in class and still walked away with their respective team titles by claiming both 5A-4A Divisions and the Deweyville Pirate boys team captured the Class 3A-and-Under Division for the third consecutive year.

The Bridge City boys won their division with 32 points while Nederland was second (51) and Huffman (83) third.

Ryan Kelly placed a solid second for the Cardinals, covering the three-mile course in 18 minutes, 22.58 seconds. He came in right behind Evadale’s Josh Daws, who ran away from the field with a winning time of 17:58.87. Following Kelly for the Cardinals was Tim Cude (fourth, 18:49.49), Brandon Simoneaux (ninth, 19:39.39), Kirby Shepherd (10th, 19:52.04), Sawyer Hogan (12th, 20:05.56), Hunter Stevens (18th, 20:40.97) and Mark Virva (34th, 22:23.03).

The Lady Cardinals nabbed their title by scoring 53 points. Little Cypress-Mauriceville (66) was a solid second while Port Neches-Groves (73) claimed third.

Freshman Mary Nguyen paced the Lady Cardinals with a sixth-place time of 14:43.33 over a two-mile course. She was followed by teammates Jessica Franklin (seventh, 15:06.83), Shae Garriga (15th, 15:50.22), Ariel Chesson (17th, 16:00.97), Melissa Pittman (19th, 16:05.33), Lisa Huynh (21st, 16:13.68) and Lan Vu (20:37.66).

The kids did a teriffic job moving up and competing today,†said Cardinal coach Cody Knight. “It’s kind of tough because they didn’t get as high in the medals like they would’ve in the 3A-and-Under Division but they realize that it’s going to help us down the road. We’ll go back down to the 3A-and-Under Division at Jasper next week.â€

Reanna Edgerton ran extremely well for Coach David Guidry and the Lady Bears by nabbing second-place with a time of 14:22.71. She was followed by LC-M teammates Michelle Rigsby (11th, 15:40.59), Megan Isaacs (12th, 15:42.27), Ellen Williams (23rd, 16:15.00), Amber Soileau (31st, 17:36.45), Amanda Godfrey (33rd, 17:36.07) and Shelly Conn (39th, 18:08.52).

Coach Brad Haeggquist Deweyville squad fought off Hardin-Jefferson to win the boys Class 3A-and-Under Division. The Pirates finished with 33 points while H-J (37) was second and Beaumont Kelly (50) third.

The Pirates received a first-place finish by Joe Dooley (19:34) who was followed by Brady Williams (11th, 24:10), Caden Thompson (12th, 24:13), Michael Chalambaga (16th, 25:00) and Jacob Hopson (18th, 25:05).

“I’m very proud of the team,†said Haeggquist. “The course conditions were terrible.â€

Lady Pirate Amber Burks ran an impressive 15:36 to take fourth place in the girls 3A-and-Under Division.

For the Bridge City JV boys Armando Chavez placed fourth with a 21:11.37 followed by Josh Blakeney (seventh, 22:08.74), Aaron Hodges (16th, 23:36.06) and Matthew Wappler (28th, 26:17.56). For the Lady Cardinal JV, Kim Truong was 10th with a 18:11.83 and Sarah Fontenot was 16th with a 18:56.15.