RUSTON GIRLS SHOWING OFF ONE OF THE TWO CHAMPIONSHIP TROPHIES HEADED BACK TO RUSTON
With all the traffic for at South Bossier Park for Parkway's Border Dash things can get a little dusty. It didn't bother the Ruston Bearcats, who must of had a broom with them on the bus. Always one of the top programs in North Louisiana, Ruston pulled off the sweep by winning both the boys' and girls' division of the biggest invitational in Northwest Louisiana.
It started with sophomore Eden Dawsey, who won the girls' division of the meet with a time of 19:35 in her season opening performance.
"It was really good," Dawsey said. "I was really nervous before the race. I was praying. I don't know. I was out of it."
The conditions were less than favorable
"It was so hot," Dawsey said. "It was really flat with some little hills. And the mulch was really bad. I kept slipping."
Senior Hallie Hebert wasn't far behind. She finished third with a time of 19:50.
Ruston had a team score of 28. Parkway was the runner-up with 110.
"As a team, we had a couple of boxes we wanted to check today," Ruston head coach Dustin Cochran said. "Honestly, this is the first thing we have done. It's hot. We're on mulch. This was moreso can you show some resilience. Can you move up in a race. We didn't want to go out real fast. We just wanted to close well today."
Hebert, the senior leader credited the change in summer training philosophy for the Bearcats level of fitness in the season opener.
"We did something different where we don't meet every day. I think that helped me with discipline. It helped me to get up every day and get working by myself."
The change was not only helpful for the team, but also the coach.
"You know, I guess the first seven years of coaching, I probably saw them 345 days out of the year." Cochran said. "You know, we've had some success, but you get a little burned out when you're doing that. I know I got tired, so I really wanted to put the emphasis on them, and say 'hey, you guys go do what you need to do and when school starts, we'll really start to get after it.'"
As good as Saturday's opener was for the Bearcats, Cochran is excited to where the work ethic can take his girls.
"They're so fit," Cochran said. "Their training has been phenomenal. They just have to learn to race it. I think as the year goes, you're going to really see this girls' team really do something. They're good."
Other scoring members of the Ruston girls' team included Addison Brister (20:34) Madison Morris (21:18), and Maddy Parkman (21:26).
After the boys' team lost their No. 1 runner, Cochran liked what he saw from his boys' squad.
"Here's the deal, Kent Falting has a Kent Falting team for a reason," Cochran said. "They're always good. They're always competitive. If you can beat them, you're doing something. Our best guy moved to Georgia. We're already starting from a deficit. We said today 'what Brennan does is what Brennan does. You start conservative the first mile', and I thought we started a little too slow. We really got out of touch with the race, but on the mulch (mile two) they ran 10/10 on the score sheet for me. I bet we moved up 60 points in the second mile. And then we closed well for coming off that. Those boys ran with such resilience. If they keep sharpening up through the year and stay healthy, I'm not going to tell you that we're going to beat Jesuit, we're going to be competitive. We're going to finish high at the state meet. That's what we want."
Seniors Luke Braswell (16:34) and Ben Boudreaux (16:36) led the Bearcat boys with top ten finishes.
Other scoring members of the Bearcat boys team included Al-Amin Wilson (16:54), Preston Parker (16:59), and Joshua Daulton (17:01).
Ruston scored 56 points, narrowly beating host Parkway (66), who was led by champion Brennan Robin (15:37) and runner-up Ben Ruliffson (15:55).
The Bearcats will take next weekend off before heading to Baton Rouge on Saturday, September 27th for the St. Joseph's Invitational.