Concord Athletic Department

On Wednesday night, the High School Cross Country Teams traveled to Springport for their Invitational. While it rained a little at times, it was mostly a great night to compete. On a very challenging course, these Yellowjacket athletes stepped up and competed at a very high level. In the first race of the night, there were 8 boys' teams battling. While Quincy earned the invitational championship, these boys battled to a second-place finish. Leading the way was Keaton Smith in sixth place, then came Jase Herendeen in 8th with his fastest race of the 2026 season. In 16th was Liam Bauman, who smashed his best time this year by 43 seconds; following close behind was Kadin Shook in 17th, then it was Zane Jason in 23rd. But the highlight of the night was Brandon Watkins, who went out from the time the gun went off until he crossed the finish line with one plan: to get in the top 30, as Coach challenged him to do this. While he came up just short of that goal, it led to him running almost 2 minutes faster than he had up to this race for this season and a new career personal best time! Way to Go Brandon! In the Girls race, your Yellowjacket runners earned their third Invitational Championship of the 2026 season as they scored 38 points to beat out the other 7 teams, with Manchester finishing in second with 74 points. Leading the way was Audrey Pyle in first place with her fastest time of the season by 7 seconds. Coming in third place was Haley Stimer, in sixth was Audrey Rinehart, in 7th was Olivia Chadwell, in 22nd was Braelynn Thorrez, and in 23rd was Mya Barrett. Congratulations, ladies, on a fantastic night where all of them came away earning a Medal! Now the athletes begin to prepare for our first Big 8 Jamboree in 13 days at Union City.