The naming of April Thomas and Cody Heard as most outstanding girl and boy runners, and Kylie McGlincy as top scholar athlete were among the highlights at last Thursday night’s Bainbridge High School Lady Cats and Bearcats cross country awards banquet.

Thomas is the 2009 girl’s cross country champion. She won the title at the Region 1AAAA meet at Lee County High School in Leesburg, completing the 3.1-mile course in a time of 20 minutes, 2.08 seconds.

Heard was a strong fourth in the Region 1AAAA boys division in a time of 18:07.87.

Thomas and Heard also had strong efforts at the Northview High School Lady Cougars and Cougars Invitational in Dothan, Ala. Thomas was first in a time of 20:24.19, and Heard was second in a time of 18:07.66.

Thomas also set a new course record in winning the girls championship at the 10th annual Bearcats Invitational in a time of 19:30.

Top scholar athlete McGlincy was joined by Anna Jordan, Erick Juarez and Caroline Rollins as scholar athletes.

To be a scholar athlete, athletes must be a sophomore, junior or senior, have a 90 or better grade point average and have scored at least a 21 on the ACT test or a 1000 on the SAT test. McGlincy had the highest test score of the scholar athletes.

McGlincy and Juarez received coach’s awards for their great accomplishments and work ethic on the course and in the classroom.

Also honored during Thursdays’ night banquet, which was held at the Bainbridge First United Methodist Church’s J.O. Smith Activities Building, were Lady Cats and Bearcats team captains. Lady Cats team captains were McGlincy and Caroline Rollins, and Bearcats team captains were Heard, Juarez and Dylan Faircloth.