Cross Country
November 30, 2022
On Friday, October 14th, the BCCHS Cross Country team met early in the morning at Billings Central to bus out to Divisionals, though the 17 team members didn’t depart until Central’s Pam Muskett took the team’s uniform photos around 6:30. The Eastern Class A Divisionals meet this year was hosted in Sidney, and the first race started at 1:00 in the afternoon. The team was accompanied by Lockwood High School’s cross country team.
The weather consisted of good conditions all throughout the day. As the team arrived at Sidney, they promptly set up a tent and began to prepare for their races. Coaches Lisa Martinez and Nick Mack led a walkthrough of the course. After the coaches gave the team a pep talk, all of the athletes ran about half of the 5 kilometer (3.1 miles) course to warm up.
The first race of the meet started at 1 in the afternoon. It included the 7 girls who qualified for Varsity this season. Coming in 20th place-9th for her team-was Shayla Brittain, who finished with a time of 21 minutes and 38 seconds. Brittain shaved off about a minute from her last run, and her time set a new school record for Central Girls Cross Country. The second race started at 1:30 for varsity boys, which also consisted of seven teammates. Greyson Piseno finished in first place, completing the race in 15 minutes and 48 seconds with an average pace of 5:06 per mile. This broke the school record for Boys Cross Country by 12 seconds. JV girls started at 2 pm with 2 participants on the Billings Central team. Olivia Guenthner finished in 28th place with a time of 26 minutes. For Boys JV, there was one participant: Eli Aley. He finished in 47th place at 23 minutes and 54 seconds. All details are listed below.
| Name of runner | Team | Place | score | Time |
| Shayla Brittain | Girl’s Varsity | 20 | 19 | 21:38 |
| Gianna Haney | Girl’s Varsity | 30 | 29 | 22:23 |
| Brenda Twichel | Girl’s Varsity | 34 | 33 | 22:40 |
| Kiera McMahon | Girl’s Varsity | 47 | 45 | 23:49 |
| Natalie Spillers | Girl’s Varsity | 48 | 46 | 23:57 |
| Katya Arzubi | Girl’s Varsity | 56 | 54 | 24:24 |
| Sarah Spini | Girl’s Varsity | 58 | 56 | 24:38 |
| Olivia Guenthner | Girl’s JV | 28 | n/a | 26:00 |
| Sage Sebastian | Girl’s JV | 38 | n/a | 27:17 |
| Grayson Piseno | Boy’s varsity | 1 | 1 | 15:48 |
| Jacob Burmeister | Boy’s varsity | 27 | 27 | 18:04 |
| Ollin Kulaga | Boy’s varsity | 49 | 49 | 19:41 |
| John Pender | Boy’s Varsity | 60 | 60 | 20:36 |
| Noah Duncil | Boy’s varsity | 62 | 62 | 20:40 |
| Eli Aley | Boy’s JV | 47 | n/a | 23:54 |
Greyson Piseno, the first-place runner representing Central’s varsity team, said, “I’ve been working hard all season to be able to go sub 16 like I did in Divisionals, and I’m so thankful for those who helped me to believe in myself including my coaches, teammates, and family.”
After all the races were finished, Central and Lockwood’s cross country teams hopped on the bus for a long ride home. The team stopped at Pizza Hut to refuel before heading back to Billings. The runners will likely forever be thankful for the day and know without a doubt that God was present with them.
