Sophia Bendet Captures XC Gold And Holliday Wins Team Title

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Like a metronome, Randolph junior Sophia Bendet just keeps on winning and it was no different on Friday. After the first mile, she was running a step or two ahead of last season's champion, Addison Hite of Pilot Point, but Bendet kept driving forward and was able to run away from HIte and the rest of the field en route to a State title. In the race for a team title, it was Holliday easily winning with 57 points, 80 ahead of second place East Bernard.

Bendet was the 800m and 1600m State champion in track in the Spring and she was able to build upon that success this Fall. Her 2023 was flawless as she won all 10 races that she ran while posting her personal record time of 11:13.00 today. It was the second fastest 3A State meet time recorded at the Old Settlers Course.

The runner-up was Maypearl's Makayla Stephens who did not even qualify for the State meet a year ago. She used a strong second mile to move up from fifth place to second place crossing the line in 11:34.5. Hite took third place in 11:38.7 while Bendet's teammate, Aubrey Milam took fourth for her second straight top-10 finish. Friona's Yvonne Legaretta finished off her career with a fourth consecutive top-10 finish taking fifth place this year in 11:45.10.

Holliday had three of the first 11 finishers and they posted a 0:36 split for their 1-5 runners. Simone Mouras (11:51.3) led the way in seventh place while Kenli Atwood (11:53.9) and Sammi Kirkland (12:03.7) were right behind her. Sarah Spears and Anahi Machuca rounded out their scoring runners as both broke 12:30. The race for second and third was much closer as East Bernard were the silver medalists with 137 points and Lytle edged Dalhart for third place by one point.