WALNUT - At 176 boys, Saturdays Bureau Valley Invitational saw the largest pool of runners that Newman had competed against this season.

In such a case, sticking together helps one find another. Naturally for the Comets, they are well aware of what sticking together can do on the cross country course.

The Comets won the championship for the second time in the meets history. Putting together 56 points, the Comets had four runners in the top 15, led by Bryson Reyess fourth-place finish in 16 minutes, 32 seconds.

When Reyes turned around after coming to a stop for a breather at the end of the finish ropes, he caught a sight of familiar blue and white. Quincy Coomes finished in eighth with a time of 17:04, followed by Chris Ahlers in 10th (17:07) and Drew Rosengren in 14th (17:13). Ethan Nash was the Comets fifth runner, crossing in 28th place (18:00).

We had such a strong pack behind us, Reyes said. Our two-through-five were right there. I was real pleased to see that whenever I rounded a turn.

Newmans pack time of its top five runners of 1:28 was second to Rockford Christian (0:53), who placed sixth. The Royal Lions sat most of their top runners out for the meet, leaving Newman coach Pat Warkins a little disappointed that his team didnt get the chance to compete with top-ranked team in the Class 1A Oregon Sectional (according to Dyestat.com).

The boys responded the way I thought they could, Warkins said. It was nice to see four of them as high up as they were, and our fifth guy [Nash] moved up farther than normal, so that helped a lot.

Reyes was the closest runner to Aurora Christians Tanner Chada and Rock Fallss Seth Williams for most of the race until being overtaken by Al Baldonado of Hall. Chada and Williams were only a few feet apart from one another for all but the final -mile, but Chada kept his lead the entire way and spread it out as the two made their way down a hill close to the finish line.

Williams, who finished eighth last year, bested that time by 18 seconds, finishing 2 seconds behind Chada with a time of 16:11. However, he traversed the course without his running partner Brayden Hamblen, who sat out the meet.

It was a little intimidating, because last year I beat him, Williams said of Chada. I was thinking that I was going to ride on him until that last half-mile and just beat him. I was hurting pretty bad coming around down the finish area, and I just couldnt do it today.

Link:

Cross Country: Comets pack better than rest