The Big Lake Hornets traveled to Monticello Thursday morning to compete in an early season time trial. No team scores or places were recorded, and the distances were shorter than a typical meet, but many of the Hornet harriers showed off the results of their summer training.  

Coach Trutna was optimistic with Big Lakes placing. 

“We used today’s meet to set our varsity line-up (top seven) for our home invitational Tuesday.  The kids have been working hard to improve upon their performances from last year.  Now that we have a starting point with our racing, I look forward to seeing continued improvement through the season.”

Middle School

For the middle school girls, Brynn Scheer  and Paiton Ganley led the way.  In the middle school boys race, Alton Ahamed led the entire race to finish first.  Glavin Flavin and Trent Erickson were the next two finishers for Big Lake.  

“Our numbers are down a bit with our seventh-eighth graders,” said Trutna. “We hope that once school starts we will get a few more runners to join the team.  Our middle schoolers have done a great job so far, and they have come so far in just a week and half of practice”.

Varsity Girls

The girls’ varsity was led by sophomore Emilee Doperalski, a Mississippi 8 All-Conference performer from last year.  She was followed by Grace Heider, Campbell Slattery, Samantha Burton and Olivia Potter.  

“Our girls lost three of their top four runners from last year and had a tough test today against Monticello, who is currently ranked ninth in Class AA,” said Big Lake’s coach.  “Despite those losses, the girls have been working hard and stepped up to fill the void, and I think we could surprise some teams this year with our performances.”

Varsity Boys

The boys’ varsity picked up where they left off last year.  The Hornets are the defending Mississippi 8 Conference team champions from 2020 and are currently ranked third in the state’s AA teams.  

Junior Kade Layton finished first and was followed by his sophomore brother Owen in second.  Two-time state wrestling champion, Christian Noble was the third Hornet across the line.  

“These three went 1-2-3 in the conference last year, and they all qualified for the state championship meet,” said Trutna.  “Due to COVID-19, there was no state meet last year, and they are looking to qualify again this season.  Kade is currently ranked fifth in Class AA and Owen is ranked seventh.”  

“It’s nice to be ranked, but our boys know that rankings don’t mean anything until you put up the results late in the season,” said Trutna.  

The Hornet coach says his squad has several strong teams in their conference and section that will push them all season.  

“The Monticello boys are ranked seventh in the state, and we only beat them by one point last year to take the conference team title,” said Trutna.  “It will be a battle all season.”  

Jack Leuer, Spencer Vold, Tanon Jacobson, and David Guyse made up the remainder of the top seven for Big Lake.

“I think we had a great start to our season and look forward to our home invite Tuesday”, said Coach Trutna.