Cross country ran in the Chile Pepper Cross Country Festival at the University of Arkansas on Saturday Oct. 1. The invitational featured schools from around the central US, including schools from Ohio, Texas, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Arkansas and Missouri. In a meet with 658 runners and featuring 94 different schools, the Lancers came in second with a total of just 169 points.

In the meet, Austin Hindman came in sixth with a time of 15:23.64, Tommy Laarman came in 19th with a 15:47.42, Nassim Oufattole in 22nd with a 15:50.26, Harrison Brown in 51st with a 16:11.80 and Nathan Reed in 71st with a 16:27.92.

The girls didn’t win either, but still did well, coming 27th out of 82 schools in the highly competitive meet. Mollie Rogan and Meg Nicholson lead the charge, with times of 19:08.11 and 20:22.11 and places of 27th and 115th respectively.

Both boys and girls also ran at the Suburban Conference meet the following week.

Lead by Hindman, Laarman, Brown, Oufattole and Reed, who came in first, third, fourth, fifth and eleventh place respectively, the boys handily won conference by a wide margin. They only had 24 points with an average time of just 15:56.

Laarman, a leader for the team, said, “I came off of an injury at the beginning of the season, and we’ve been working on it from there and I’ve been doing better and better every race. I’m happy with where I am, but I think I can keep moving up. I’m super proud of how (the team is) doing. We’re exceeding everyone else’s expectations. I won’t say that we’re exceeding our own expectations; we gotta stay a little confident. I’m very proud of how we’re doing and I think we’ll be ready to compete at the State level.”

The girls came in fifth in the Conference meet, with Rogan and Nicholson still leading the team. Rogan came in first and Nicholson came in fourth, but that wasn’t enough, as Lafayette still finished with 157 points, 103 points below first. However, many of the Lady Lancers were freshman and still did well overall, meaning that the team will continue to improve for the next few years.

The final meet before State is the Suburban West Invitational at Northwest Early Childhood Center on Oct. 15.