Rockets roll with 10 in top 12

TIM COOPER

CABOT — Little Rock Catholic senior Noah Findlay defended his individual title at the 7A-Central cross country meet Monday, but it was his teammates who were out to prove a point.

The Rockets had 10 runners finish among the top 12 at Rolling Hills Country Club as Catholic cruised home with the team title.

“It has been 100 percent for the team this season,” said Findlay, who finished the 5K course in 16 minutes, 32.53 seconds. “We’re going for [a state title] this year.”

Cabot’s Scott Foltz and Lee Sullivan spoiled the Rockets’ run, finishing third and fifth, respectively.

The Rockets finished with 20 points. Cabot was the runner-up with 62.

“We won conference last year, but this is the first year we’ve really had a chance to win the state,” said Colin O’Mara, who finished just three-tenths of a second behind Findlay on Monday. “Our emphasis has been on teamwork. In our long [practice] runs, Noah and I will force some of our slower guys to keep up with us.

“I make it a joke. I say, ‘Do you want a reuben or a po’ boy?’ We call it sandwiching. Noah stays in front and I stay behind the others and force them to stay between us.”

Heading into the final mile of the course, Catholic had nine of the 10 runners leading the pack.

“We were just trying to go out and stay steady,” Findlay said. “We wanted it to be our top five or seven guys at the finish, but it went really well. We had a bunch of guys step up who normally haven’t been in the mix to finish well. I think that boosted our confidence.”

In the girls race, Cabot sophomore Micah Huckabee ran away from the competition to lead the Lady Panthers to a team title. Huckabee ran the course in 19:31.08, 26 seconds in front of runner-up Cally Cochran of Mount St. Mary.

Huckabee’s time was also 16 seconds better than she ran the course in 2011.

“I felt really good about it,” Huckabee said. “Coming through my splits, I felt I could get stronger as the race went along. It just felt really great.

“I really wanted to get a personal record at this race. My [personal best] had been a 19:46 from this race last year, so I really wanted to beat that to see that I had improved.”

Cabot won the meet with 33 points, edging Mount St. Mary, which had 37 points.

The state meet will be Nov. 10 on the infield at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs.