10/22/2025
🎉 What a GREAT WAY to close out our 2025 SMS XC Season! 🎉
STATE RUNNER UP!! in the SMS XC BOYS 6th & Under Championship Division! 🏆
3 individual medalists in the Championship division & 5 more in the Open divisions!🏅🏅🏅🏅🏅🏅🏅🏅
AND 15 of 29 runners ran a PR + 1 Season PR!
RUTH LAWSON placed 5th and JORDAN GISH placed 11th - out of 225 runners in the Girls 6th & Under Championship division! Ruth's 5th place finish is the highest individual placement in a State Championship Division race, in SMS history! DAX PIPPIN led our Boys 6th & Under team to their 2nd place finish in the State, by placing 13th in the Championship Division out of 297 runners! Our next 4 boys came in within 23 seconds of each other (Narvell Womack, Jensen Breamer, Abel Minton, & Andrew Jensen), while our #6 (Camden Barkley) finished with a PR despite a(nother) fall & running without his shoe for more than half the race! and our #7 (Owen Hinton) finished strong despite dealing with foot pain. Big SHOUT OUT to our 2, 3, 4, 5 runners for running so close together (we love pack running!) and to our 6 - 7 (yeah, I said 6 -7! 🤣) for persevering through tough times! We CANNOT wait to see how all of these talented young runners continue to develop!
In the Girls 6th & Under Championship Division, it was kind of a mixed bag - with Ruth & Jordan putting up great performances and 4th grader, AVERY BINGHAM, taking our #4 spot and clocking a new PR by a whopping 1:47!! Makenzie Hinton ran a solid race & Annalise Anderson did, too - despite having some major stomach upset pre-race! Both Makenzie and Annalise have been coming on strong towards the end of this season! Isabelle Risley, our usual #3, is a fantastic runner - who had a tough race on Saturday. She learned that Mind Over 💪 sometimes just means finishing a race when you feel terrible and don't think you can - and we are SO proud of her for that!
All 6 of these young ladies have very promising XC careers ahead of them! The future is BRIGHT for SMS XC!
In the Boys 6th & Under OPEN Division, SMS was represented by 3 young, very talented young men - all of whom PR'd (Nolan Hinton by 1:15!!) - with 2 of them (Nolan, & Callen Gish) earning medals for their 39th & 44th place finishes in a field of 154 runners! Gideon Wright sadly missed the medals by only 9 places, but ran a 47 second PR!
In the Girls 8th & Under Championship Race, talented 7th grade runner, Harper Bridwell logged her first race as our #1 girl, and ran a season PR by 1:11! All of our other young ladies ran with their hearts & left it all on the course, just like we asked them to! Sophia Olewinski took the #2 spot for our team, while Olivia Anderson took the #3. Look out! These 2 young ladies will be back much stronger next year as they learn what they can REALLY do!
8th grader, GRACE LAWSON was next, as she ran her first race in over a month, after sitting out for an injury. She was cleared to run, but we all still questioned whether she should race - but she was determined to run in State, to close out her MS career - & she toughed it out! Her and fellow 8th grader, KENDALL EDDS, who was our #5 - have been invaluable assets to our team in SO MANY ways for the last several years & we are *really* going to miss them! 😞 Grace is a great leader, taking initiative & making sure the team is doing what they should - while Kendall is a more quiet, lead-by-example kid. BOTH are kind & encouraging to all our runners! ❤ Ms. Jayla Harrison, who joined us late in the season, rounded out this girl's team and persevered to finish the race!
In the Boys 8th & Under OPEN Division, our SMS boys placed 4th out of 20 teams, led by 8th grader, CAMDEN BINGHAM, who joined us about mid-season. We tried to recruit Mr. Bingham in 6th & 7th grade, to no avail - & we sure wish we'd have had him all along! - but we are so glad he joined us this year! He placed 18th, followed by Kollin Walker and Grant Davis, who placed 31st & 32nd, respectively. All 3 earned medals for their performances!
Kollin also joined us late but has done a FANTASTIC job for our team! We are EXCITED to see what he can do next year, with a full season to train!! 🏃 8th grader, GRANT DAVIS, has kept his head up & kept working hard, despite 4 months off for an injury that just simply set him back too much for him to be able to perform at his optimal level this XC season. As a 3rd year SMS XC veteran, who has shown true grit, strong work ethic, & leadership to our team, Grant will be sorely missed.
Kason Williams ran a terrific race, taking the #4 spot and running a PR by 1:16! Carson Jensen, who has also missed some training time due to an injury, took the #5 spot - while DAVID SMITHHART was next running a PR by an amazing 2:27 and JAYDEN ESTES finished out the season with an astonishing PR by 4:38!! We sure hate to see Camden Bingham and Grant Davis go - but we are grateful that these other 5 boys can come back next year! We know what Carson can do when he's healthy - and now we've also seen how much promise these other 4 have!
That's a wrap on the 2025 SMS XC Season, ya'll!
Well - except for our end of the season mile time trial; banquet; and hayride/bonfire! So, there's still some FUN ahead!
Below are our full team's results. *Denotes PR
BOYS 6th & Under Championship Division - 2nd of 36 teams!
STATE RUNNER-UP! 297 runners
13th 11:17 Dax Pippin *by 10 sec 🏅
60th 12:04 Narvell Womack *8 sec
67th 12:14 Jensen Breamer *45 sec
71st 12:16 Abel Minton *34 sec
78th 12:27 Andrew Jensen *21 sec
119th 13:07 Camden Barkley *5 sec 👟
133rd 13:19 Owen Hinton
GIRLS 6th & Under Championship Division - 9th of 21 teams
225 runners
5th 11:47 Ruth Lawson *11 sec 🏅
11th 12:00 Jordan Gish *20 sec 🏅
105th 14:44 Makenzie Hinton
107th 14:47 Avery Bingham *1:47!!
128th 15:31 Annalise Anderson
166th 16:38 Isabelle Risley
BOYS 6th & Under OPEN Division
154 runners
39th 13:08 Nolan Hinton *1:15! 🏅
44th 13:25 Callen Gish *2 sec 🏅
59th 14:08 Gideon Wright *47 sec
GIRLS 8th & Under Championship Division - 32nd of 36 teams
336 runners
111th 19:17 Harper Bridwell *Season PR by 1:11
245th 22:53 Sophia Olewinski
261st 23:32 Olivia Anderson
263rd 23:40 Grace Lawson
286th 24:56 Kendall Edds
331st 31:45 Jayla Harrison
BOYS 8th & &Under OPEN Division - 4th of 20 teams
236 runners
18th 16:40 Camden Bingham 🏅
31st 17:15 Kollin Walker 🏅
32nd 17:18 Grant Davis 🏅
85th 19:35 Kason Williams *1:16!
111th 20:16 Carson Jensen
171st 22:27 David Smithhart *2:27!
208th 25:01 Jayden Estes *4:38!!
Your coaches are SUPER PROUD of each and every one of you! All of you have grown throughout the season - and not just in your performances - but in ways that cannot be measured by the clock! We love you all - we look forward to our upcoming end of the season celebrations with our runners & families - & we are blessed to have been a small part of your journey over these past few months.
Thanks to all of our amazing XC families for all you've done to help our program! We are grateful for all of you!
~We RAN! 🏃🏃🏃
#❤SMSXC
South Middle School-Henderson, KY
Niagara Elementary School
Bend Gate Elementary School
A.B. Chandler Elementary School
