Photo by Beth Gardner Bullard girls and boys cross country teams competing in a the Tyler Lee Invitational held at UT Tyler recently. The girls placed fifth. SKY RANCH - After a fifth-place finish last week in the prestigious Tyler-Lee meet, the Lady Panthers came in sixth-place among twenty teams from all over Texas at the Grace Community/Sky Ranch cross country event this past Friday afternoon.

Minta Spears was third overall and Bailee Callens took 14th place for Bullard.

Also adding to the team totals were Hillary Kempton in 40th-place, Samantha Phillips at 68th, Sarah French was 71st, and Emmy Long came in 81st.

"The girl's are working real hard and improving every week, with the goal of winning district and advancing to the regional meet," head coach Greg Gay said.

The Panthers boys crew did not fare as well at Sky Ranch but got good efforts from Keaton Boyd, Christopher Braaten and J.T. Evans.

Two weeks ago, Bullard girl's cross country team took a fifth-place spot at the prestigious Robert E. Lee Cross Country Classic held on the University of Texas at Tyler campus.

Running in the Girls and Boys 1A-3A classification, Bullard ran extremely well against the 17 teams competing.

Mount Pleasant-Chapel Hill won the event, followed by Spring Hill, Will Point and T.K. Gorman for the team title.

Bullard's Minta Spears took second-place individually clocking in at 12:27.

Spears was the lone Lady Panther in the top 15 runners.

The Bullard boy's claimed 18th out of 21 teams. For the boys at UT Tyler, J.T. Evans, Keaton Boyd, and Jacob Whatley were the to team finishers.

The previous weekend, the Bullard cross country team opened the season with a thirdplace finish for the girl's, at the Spring Hill Invitational Meet, in Longview. Leading the way for the girls once again was Minta Spears in second-place overall.

Adding to the point totals for the girl's were Bailee Callens in 20th, Sarah French taking the 28th spot, Hillary Kempton coming in at 31st and Samantha Phillips placing 40th.

The boys were led by Keaton Boyd with a 43rd-place spot. Christopher Braaten came in at 64th, J.T. Evans took 83rd, Jacob Whatley claimed 90th and Jace Deese came in 97th.

The team will participate this Saturday in the Dogwood Invitational in Palestine. The Bullard varsity boys and girls, junior varsity girls, and junior high boys and girls will be competing.