Darlington CC Festival Summary: Tuttle Bests Ilse in Amazing Finish

                                               

                                                                    Darlington CC Festival Summary

Great races today at Darlington School who hosted another great event.  The Girls Varsity race featured a monumental showdown between 2 of the top runners all-class with Tayler Tuttle just holding off a hard charging Morgan Isle. Michael Thurston pulled away the 2nd half of the Boys race in 15:52 for the win. The course and finish area was immaculate and hats off to Coach Parrish and his crew of Darlington vols who did a great job. Marist took both Varsity team titles with Etowah swooping down grabbing both runnerup honors.

Varsity Girls

1A Private FCA runner Emma Grace Hurley came in 3rd against some heavy competition at Darlington   Image by Bruce Taylor

What a battle Tayler Tuttle of Providence Christian and Marist's Morgan Ilse had on this beautiful Saturday morning. Tuttle had about a 15 meter lead at the 1/2 way point, but Ilse made a big move down the 120 meter finishing stretch in fron of a raucous crowd just running out of turf as Tuttle crossed first in 18:00.75 to Ilse's 18:01.12...All-Classes leader Marist made mincemeat out of a very good Etowah squad carving out 42 points placing 2 more in the top 7 including Frosh Anna Renou in 6th at 19:35 with Catie Faust tagging along in 19:37  Etowah held off a game Centennial squad who won Fulton County last week. Kingsley Greene led the high flyin' Eagle gals placing 4th overall in 19:28  Kyla Resnick also cracked the top 10 in 19:49  Maddie Petersen led the Knights efforts with a 8th place 19:41  Other top girls in the Varsity race were FCA's Emma Jean Hurley in 3rd overall at 19:23, highly ranked 1A Providence Christian's Emily Swanigan clocked a 19:29 for 5th overall, Darlington boosted their top 1A Private ranking by smacking large schools North Cobb and Creekview as well as #3 Providence from their class. Stephanie Ward provided some home cookin' for the partisan Darlington crowd placing 11th in 19:55. Caitlyn Farrell of Cherokee was 9th overall in 19:44

Varsity Boys
 

    Marist Soph Frank Pittman has become a main cog in the gearbox for the powerful Marist Boys squad placing 6th overall.  Image by Bruce Taylor

The Boys race for the team title however was much closer as #5 All-Class Marist edged an ever-improving 6A Etowah squad by 11 points putting their 3 studs in the top 6 including senior Michael Thurston who once again added another notch to his victory belt winning the overall title leading Marist clocking a 15:52  Daniel Navarro was right in the mix at the 1/2 way mark, but faded a bit back into 4th overall in 16:24 Soph Frank Pittman had a strong race 6th overall at 16:38. Matt Munns of Blessed Trinity had a superb race seizing 2nd overall leading the 3A Titans' 4th place team efforts in 16:06 Etowah's guys were picking off runners down the home stretch, key to their pushing Marist a bit as junior Michael Perona led the hunt placing 7th in 16:41  North Cobb placed 3rd in the team race with Kennesaw Mountain 4th. The Mustangs had 2 guys in the top 8 including Alex Dunlap 3rd overall in 16:18, Jacob Roberson 8th in 16:41. 1A Private's Robby Keough of Whitefield Academy was 5th in 16:35  Brennan Garriquez of Creekview was 9th in 16:45 followed by North Cobb's Emanuel Juarez in 10th at 16:47

Middle School Championship Races

The Girls MS  V race was a crowd pleaser as the finish area crew moved over a few meters with unattached individual Nyah Hernandez taking the overall title in 12:14. 8th grader Kira Stanley from Lovingood MS took the runnerup spot in 12:27 with Katya Bessiere (another relatively unknown runner) placing 3rd in 12:32  Holy Innocents (who have a huge MS program) was team champ as Pace outlasted North Whitfield for 2nd.

The Kennesaw Jr Mustang Boys carted the team title away scoring 75 points defeating runnerup Holy Innocents and Pace. They did it with no frontrunner, relying on pack running placing 5 boys in the top 20. The Individual title was won by Pace ace Jack Douglass who turned in an 11:09. Jacob Brennamen of River Ridge Youth placed 2nd in 11:15 followed by Julienne Harrison of FCA in 11:26

 

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Darlington CC Festival Varsity Boys Video

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