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The Warriors finally put a ring on it. As noted in the meet preview, Oconee County has been in the title hunt for a long time, so punching the win home on Saturday was probably, lets understate this, validating. And boy, did they punch it home. It was clear from the gun that Oconee County wanted no question marks or uncertainty surrounding how their storied season would end. They got in position, were patient juuuuuust long enough, and then attacked with a flurry of big moves that shut the door on the conversation.

Boys leaders early. All Photos by Alex Brust

Wesleyan pack was up early

Going towards the playground for the first time, if anybody was going to challenge for the title, it looked like it was going to be Wesleyan, with a strong group of 5 running together near the front of the chase pack, but Oconee County, a little more spread out than their competition, was still in position to do all the damage they wanted, starting with Aaron Brodrick and Cooper Timberman who took the lead of the race around the central hill of the course and dropping the hammer on everybody else, with only John Ryan from Savannah Country Day trying to match the move. One big separation later, we saw the chase pack starting to spread out, becoming more of a line than a clump, and at the front of those lines, lots of white and blue.

Separation slope early

A second team emerging as the groups began to spread out was Lumpkin County, with Wyatt Windham and Ben Sherrill locking into around 4th and 6th places, battling it out with Oconee County's third runner, Patterson Graham, and Wood Moore, from Wesleyan, and John Stanczak from Columbus. This crowd would battle each other all the way back around to the playground for the second time before they finally started to create some separation.

Brodrick for the win

Timberman Runner up

John Ryan in 3rd

Oconee County won it with a big team victory. Sure, they went 1/2 up front, but having a 5th runner coming in 21st place leaves very, very little room for any other teams to respond. Cheers to Oconee County for taking such a decisive win home.

Wood Moore led Wesleyan surrounded by Wyatt Windham and Ben Sherrill

Following them, Wesleyan was more spread out, but still with strong key players where they were needed. Wood Moore's 5th place finish set a strong opening bar for the team, with the rest of the wolves filing in 10th, 25th, 31st, and 44th.

Third place went to Pike County, which is extra impressive once you notice that Pike County managed to take third place without a front runner in the Top 15. Instead, Pike County packed the points in with their tight pairings, and the second fastest "5th Man" of the day in Christian Fowler.

Fourth Place went to Pickens County whose Noah Jones cracked the Top 10 and led the rest of the Dragons onto the podium.

Also noteworthy, running as an individual from Morgan County, was Sam Wingfield who came in 9th with an impressive 17:31