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Madison, USJ post solid finishes in XC jamboree

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Saturday was a good morning to go for a run, and a few hundred athletes in elementary, middle and high school did that at Union University.

Madison Academic hosted its annual jamboree cross country meet, in which the high school teams ran a 2.2-mile race on Union’s campus.

The high school girls’ race was the final race of the morning and started a little early when it appeared as if stormy weather that had been prevalent all around Madison County was about to finally head toward North Jackson.

But the event managed to stay rain free.

“We were really blessed because it looked like it was bearing down on us there for a minute,” said Madison coach Brian Buchholz. “We detected lightning about 12 miles away, but as long as it’s not within 10 miles we were OK. Fortunately we were.”

Nathan Lewis, representing the Heat team out of Memphis, was the winning runner in the high school boys, recording a time of 11:46.

The top finishers from Madison County were University School of Jackson’s Miles Johnson finishing 12th in 12:45.3, Madison’s Kaden Mosely at 13th in 12:45.7, Madison’s Logan Baker at No. 18 in 13:22, Madison’s Austin Wright at No. 19 in 13:24 and Madison’s Jacob Fugate at No. 21 in 13:32.

Meriel Rowland from Hutchison School in Memphis won the girls’ race in 14:01.3.

USJ’s Addy Kirkland came in third in 15:33.9, and Kristin Henning was seventh in 16:13.6. Trinity Christian Academy’s Stella Barnett finished ninth in 16:25.2, and Alaina Uselton finished 13th for USJ in 16:42.7. Leighton Kayal crossed the finish line for Madison in 16:43.6 to finish 15th.

“I was really proud of the way we ran today,” Buchholz said about his teams’ performances on Saturday. “It’s a jamboree and the season hasn’t officially started yet, so I don’t expect today to be our best race, and I don’t want it to be our best race.

“But our guys ran really well, and I’m OK with how they finished. The girls are a little banged up dealing with injuries, but the ones that did run today did well.”

Brandon Shields, brandon@jacksonpost.news

High School Sports