All Photos by Marc Logan - Photo Album
1A Public Boys - Harris and Armuchee win big
Trace Harris, the Armuchee junior, didn't run at the state meet last year. So he must have been determined to make the 2021 State Championships the best race of his season. He was able to get out front with a lead halfway through the race and continued to press the whole way. He ultimately ran uncontested the second half of the race and was able to bring home his first ever state cross country championship. He won the race in a time of 17:47 which was a 20 second victory.
Behind Harris was ACE Charter junior Nathan Hallar. He opened up with Harris but ultimately just couldn't quite handle the pace. Hallar ran the second loop alone but came down the final hill in 18:07 for 2nd place. Liam Corbally of Atlanta Classical Academy was 3rd overall in a time of 18:25 while Eli Hutchins of Trion and freshman Alexander Tunnell of ACE had a close race to take 4th and 5th overall with Hutchins winning 18:34 to 18:35. Rounding out the top 10 podium spots were Ben Owens (Armuchee), Ty Wood (Lake Oconee Academy), Matthew Campbell (Armuchee), Michael Fletcher (Barrow Arts), and Landon England (Armuchee).
It's no surprise after seeing they put four in the top 10, that Armuchee came away victorious in this race. But you still need five runners and it wasn't until senior Jesse Hernandez came across the line in 12th place that they sealed the deal, winning with 37 points. ACE was runner up with 69 points after placing two in the top five. Barrow Arts took 3rd overall behind the 9th place finish from Fletcher and Commerce got the final trophy despite not having a single podium finisher. They were led by Peyton McClure in 11th with a time of 19:16.
1A Public Girls - Kimple switches places with Green to lead Armuchee to the win.
Last year Shelby Green won the race and Marissa Kimple was runner up. This year the order was reversed for the Armuchee duo and the times were almost identical to last year too. Kimple got out to an early lead and never looked back. She came down the final hill in a very solid time for such a tough course in a race that she basically ran all alone. Kimple claimed her first ever state cross country title, beating her teammate who was the defending champion.
Green ran in 2nd place the entire way and was stuck all alone the whole way too. She gutted out a sub 21:00 performance as she was able to earn runner up honors and focus on helping her teammates. Jada Warren of Georgia Military was able to run a tough race and finish out in 3rd place overall with a time of 21:42. Close behind her were two other runners who had a tight finish. Paden Bell of Commerce barely edged Gaylen Griner from Lanier County with a time of 21:53 to 21:54. Rounding out the top ten were Ermay Vazquez (Commerce), Alison Markham (Towns County), Haley Hartman (Gordon Lee), Smita Carroll (Barrow Arts), and Sophie Thacker (Armuchee).
While it wasn't quite the dominant win that the boys enjoyed, the Armuchee girls were able to go home victorious as well scoring 67 points. They were challenged by Barrow Arts though who only had 75 points and actually had a tighter 1-5 split of 1:59 compared to a much larger time gap for Armuchee. 3rd place was Ace Charter after not putting any runners in the top ten, they scored 105 points and were led by Collier Marbut. And the final podium spot went to Atlanta Classical Academy who barely outscored Gordon Lee for 4th. They put up 142 points behind the 11th place finish of Anna Robbins.