Sam Chandler
Tommy McDonough
Hoover's Tommy McDonough finished third at the Hoover Invitational.
The Hoover High School cross country teams secured a pair of runner-up finishes on Thursday afternoon at their namesake meet.
The 2015 edition of the Hoover Invitational attracted over 30 teams to the challenging 5-kilometer course at Veterans Park, and the Buccaneers failed to beat just two of them.
Well, one of them really.
The Mountain Brook boys and girls swept team honors, totaling scores of 35 points in the girls’ race and 46 points in the boys’ race, spoiling Hoover’s hopes of winning its home meet.
But that doesn’t mean there was a lack of standout performances for the host Bucs.
On the girls’ side, Hoover placed four runners in the top 10. Led by freshman Ava Weems’ sixth-place finish, Hoover went eight through 10 thanks to strong races from Presley Weems (8th), Amellia Rumore (9th) and Sydney Steely (10th).
On the boys’ side, Tommy McDonough fought his way to a third-place finish, crossing the line in 16:56.43.
“I didn’t really like how I ran, but I think we did all right as a team,” McDonough said. “We’re getting better; we’re improving our four through five. We feel like we’re getting stronger in that area, and we’re taking it day-by-day trying to get better, and we’ll see how it goes from here on.”
The Bucs’ next test will come at the Class 7A, Section 3 meet on Thursday Nov. 5, when the teams will attempt to punch their tickets to the AHSAA State Cross Country Championships, held on Nov. 14 at Moulton’s Indian Mounds Park.
