Bulldogs perform well on state meet course

The traveling troupe under head coach Stuart Dixon was in Round Rock Oct. 4 for the McNeil Invitational and races in Lampasas Friday. 

Competition in Fredericksburg Oct. 22 will give the runners an opportunity to preview the course where the District 8-3A championships will be conducted Oct. 29.  The regional meet will be in Lubbock.

At the McNeil Invitational, Tyson Denton, Logan Neighbor and Jayme Wills led the Burnet varsity squads to an excellent showing on the same course that will be used for the state meet, Dixon said.

 “There were a plethora of teams as you would expect because of the course,” he said, “but our teams did great.” 

The Bulldogs placed 14th and the Lady Dawgs finished 26th out of 43 teams in each race. Dixon said 363 runners participated in the boys race and 342 in the girls race. 

“The times are slower than what they have been running this year, but they ran at noon on a tough course. But more importantly than the times was that the runners gave all they could,” he said. 

Denton, the all-district senior, and Neighbor continued their journey to repeat their feat of being regional qualifiers. Only this time, it would be out of District 8-3A instead of 25-4A where they competed a year ago. 

Denton finished 28th at 18 minutes eight seconds while Neighbor was a close 31st with a time of 18:10. Matt Breneman and Garrett Rowe, who were also regional qualifiers last season, finished 112th and 150th, respectively, with times of 19:22 and 19:45. They were followed by teammates Andrew Nylander at 182nd (20:10), Ivan Palacios at 202nd (20:23), and Matt McCrae at 270th (21:29).

In the girls’ event, Wills captured 52nd place with a time of 13:26, while freshman running mate Kirsten Williamson finished 138th in 14:24.  Other Lady Dawg runners were Lidia Rodriguez 152nd (14:31), Claire Carpenter 169th (14:39), Aimee Clendennen 210th (14:58), Andrea Clendennen 219th (15:06), and Tara Canty 238th (15:45).