The Opener hosted by Mississippi College at Choctaw Trails is one of the biggest cross-country events of the season as over 1,000 runners from public and private schools across the state and from out of state schools competed in 5K varsity, 4K junior varsity and 3K junior high races Saturday.

Thirty teams competed in the Boys 5K Red Race and none were faster than the Brookhaven High Panthers.

The senior duo of Grayson Childress and Sam Arnold took first and second overall respectively in a field that was made up of 257 runners. Pearl High finished second and Parkway High out of Shreveport was the third-place team.

Childress ran the 3.1-mile course in 16 minutes and two seconds while Arnold finished at 16:06.

Fellow Ole Brook seniors Jake Thompson (16:55) and Trey Knott (17:23) were fifth and ninth overall respectively. Brookhaven High senior Collin Kellum (17:59) rounded out the top five for coach Shannon Knott by finishing 19th.

West Lincoln senior Chase Spring (18:53) finished 34th while Brookhaven High sophomore Wyatt Scott (19:12) was the 41st finisher. Senior Todd Michael Rodriquez of Loyd Star finished 57th overall for coach Michelle Case and the Hornets. Jay Case is in his first-year coach West Lincoln cross-country.

The Brookhaven High girls team came in seventh overall out of 22 teams in their race. Loyd Star senior Aubrey Britt finished seventh overall with a time of 21:59. Freshman Annabelle Summers (23:45), freshman Ella Thompson (23:57) and senior Amy Mabile (24:06) — all of Brookhaven High — finished 21st, 24th and 28th respectively.

Senior Brooklyn Biancamano of Long Beach finished first overall with a time of 19:11 in the varsity girl’s race. East Rankin Academy won the varsity girls race with Pearl High coming in second and Simpson Academy finishing third.

In the 3K junior high race, seventh grader Isabella Iles of Brookhaven finished seventh overall out of 106 runners. In the boys 3K race, Ian Iles finished ninth overall and his teammate and fellow seventh grader Cooper Wallace grabbed 10th place.