Springlake-Earth's Taytum Goodman wins third straight state championship in cross country
If you're going by the standard that Taytum Goodman has set for herself, Saturday's 1A girl's cross country state meet was a disappointment.
After all, she didn't break a state record this time.
Goodman, a junior at Springlake-Earth, won her third consecutive individual state championship after clocking in with a time of 11 minutes, 11.20 seconds, a minute and 15 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher. She broke the 1A girls state record last season for the second consecutive year with a time of 10:59.36.
The Springlake-Earth girls finished in third place as a team with a score of 126 thanks to Goodman and Aabriella Villanueva, who finished fifth with a time of 12:50.8.
The Wolverines weren't the only Panhandle team taking home some hardware.
The Nazareth girls brought home silver with a second-place score of 107, just two behind state champion Miller Grove. The Swiftettes were led by Madison Brockman (20th place, 13:15.6), Kelsie Gunter (21st place, 13:16.1) and Chloe Birkenfeld (23rd place, 13:19.4).
Melody Rampley of Silverton finished 22nd at 13:17.90, Claude had two runners in the top 50 with Bobbie Renee Fouquet (41st) and Shealee Brannon (43rd), White Deer's Kelsi Vaughn finished 48th, and Groom's Ali Friemel took 52nd.
On the boys side, Happy finished in 14th with 321 and Texline was 15th with 346. Alex Acevedo of Silverton was the top Panhandle runner at 24th place with a time of 18:04.90. Brance Ferguson took 31st for Happy, Bryson Brockman of Nazareth was 37th, Follett's Julian Barton finished 55th and Claude's Hunter Lovell took 56th. Joe Clay was the top Texline runner at 72nd while Hedley's Josh Booth finished 87th.
There was one other medalist on the day from the Panhandle as Friona's Yvonne Legaretta of Friona. She took home the bronze medal in 3A with a time of 12:12.10. For teams, the Dalhart girls took seventh with 204 while Canadian was 12th with 248.
Konnar McClendon of Canadian was the only other top 25 finisher with a time of 12:43.30 to finish 24th. Circe Johnson was Dalhart's top finisher at 49th while Tulia's Diana Briones was 67th.
On the boys end of things, Azariah Gonzales of Dimmitt was the top finisher from the Panhandle as he took 8th place with a time of 16:26.50. Hugo Briones of Tulia finished 26th with a time of 17:06.00 and Bushland's Zackary Nichols finished 38th to round out the only area runners in the 3A boys race.
Finally, there was just one 5A runner from the Panhandle in Amarillo's Emma Milsow. She finished 76th with a time of 20:12.70.
This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Springlake-Earth's Taytum Goodman wins third straight state championship in cross country
