Pictured, from left, are: Captain Olivia Gillespie; Co-Coach Adrienne Carter; Co-Coach Perry Gillespie (East Central Conference Coach of the Year, Men’s Cross Country, 2020-2021); and Captain Andrew Usher.
Dark Horses celebrate great year
Pictured are East Central Conference Varsity Season Champions, Men’s Cross Country, 2020-2021. From left, are: Peyton Matthis (All-Conference Runner, Top Seven); Cristian Ortiz (All-Conference Runner, Top Seven); Andrew Usher; Harrison Williams (All-Conference Runner, Top Seven); and James Sills.
Cristal Ortiz (All-Conference Runner, Top Seven), left, and Olivia Gillespie (All-Conference Runner, Top Seven).
The 2020-2021 Clinton Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Teams.
The Clinton Dark Horses cross country teams just wrapped up their season and co-coach Perry Gillespie said that the season was a great one.
“The whole season was great, especially in conference,” Gillespie said. “We did amazing in conference competition. I mainly had the boys and Coach Carter took care of the girls. The boys performed just like I wanted them to and we were coming in first or second place routinely.”
“We met our goals and exceeded expectations. I do wish we could’ve qualified for state but overall we’re proud of where we finished,” Gillespie continued.
On the girls side, Gillespie acknowledged that the team also performed really well and are excited at how their season turned out.
“We had two individual girls that were placing top 10 regularly,” he stated. “Overall it was a great season for them overall. All the girls ran strong and achieved their own personal bests.”
With that, he also added that the future is bright for the Horses Cross Country teams and they are excited about seeing some new competition with the conference realignment expected for the 2021-2022 season.
“We’ll be in a new conference next year and on the boys team we return our top five runners and on the girls side we lose our top two runners, but, we still expect big things. We’re excited. We want to thank everyone for helping us out this year and I want to thank Coach Carter. She’s awesome and I couldn’t ask for anyone better. Want to thank the parents and our AD, Brad Spell. We had a great year and are looking for another great year in the new conference,” Gillespie concluded.
Reach Sports Editor Daron Barefoot at [email protected].