El Dorado wraps up cross country
El Dorado wrapped up its cross country campaign Friday, competing in the 5A State Meet at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs. The Wildcats finished 12th out of 25 teams while the Lady Wildcats took 18th.
“As a coach, you always like to reflect on the season and look at the direction that the teams are going,” said El Dorado coach John Koonce. “When you look at the results, you can see that we are going in the right direction. We are in an expanded classification. Last year there were just 16 and this year there are 32. The boys finished 8th last year out of 12 full teams, and we only fielded one runner in the girls division. A lot of credit goes out to our senior runners. Guys and girls that were here before I got here who really helped create a culture of hard work that has resulted in their improvement and drawn other kids in.”
Jadon Cunningham led the Wildcats with a 39th place finish in a time of 18:32.20. Hudson McDiarmid (19:04.10) was 59th followed by Brooks Coan (67th, 19:22.00), John David Halstead (85th, 19:41.90), Hayden McDiarmid (104th, 20:05.80), Eloy Rodriguez (125th, 20:47.30), Jaland Upshaw (148th, 21:21.50), Carson Ricker (149th, 21:27.00) and Collin Taylor (151st, 21:27.90).
“Jadon Cunningham had another strong run today. He finally got healthy towards the end of the year and finished very strong. He has a bright future ahead of him,” said Koonce. “He led the way for our team the entire race and ran very hard in muddy conditions.
“Hudson McDiarmid was our two runner today. I think he ran with a different fire today since he is a senior. He really left it all out on the course.”
Melanie Miller led the Lady Wildcats, finishing 98th out of 126 runners with a time of 25:31.30. She was followed by Alivia Zartuche (100th, 25:40.80), Alexa Dewey (101st, 25:43.70), Addyson Taylor (107th, 26:09.90) and Victoria Lewis (114th, 26:33.60).
“I believe the girls knocked off about 40 seconds to get our average team time in the 25’s,” said Koonce.
“You look at kids like Tori Lewis, Hudson McDiarmid, Collin Taylor, Carson Ricker, and Braden Griffin who were running before I got here
and have stuck with it both of my years here. They have seen some lows and highs and they have a lot to be proud of. I know that I am proud of them. And while I am proud, I am not satisfied. We have improved but there are still a lot of teams that we need to catch. If we keep going in the direction that we have the past few years, I believe that we will. And if we do, I have a group of kids that left it all out there all season that we can thank for that.”