Georgia MS State Cross Country State ReCap, What a Day!
Large School Boys
Marist decimated the field again scoring 61 points for a 104 point margin of victory only having 1 runner in the top 10 in Leif Anderson who placed 8th in 12:02. The key to victory for the War Eagles was depth as Dan Devlin placed 11th, Edward Bonhomme 15th and Hayden Fukushima 17th. The Overall Champion was William James from Walton Youth Track as he had the fastest time of the day in 11:28.00 Andrew Scott of the Lost Mountain Hoyas was a strong runnerup clocking a 11:37. Nikolas Rowlands of Bonaire MS (Perry) was 3rd place posting a 11:52, Bryce Jeffrey ran unattached scoring 4th at 11:55, Derrick Pearson from Woodland Euharlee was 5th in 11:57. Dean Rusk MS (Junior Wolverines) took home the runnerup team trophy followed by Gray Station MS and Cartersville MS.
Large School Girls
It was an incredible duel for the Individual title as 2 7th graders took it out early and raced side by side much of the race. The finish was outstanding as Nyah Hernandez won by a neck over 2013 champ Sydney Runyan as they were separated by .05 at the line with Hernandez seizing the title both posting 12:18 with Alex Whiten a few strides back taking 3rd in 12:20. Caroline Patterson of Pimey Grove MS placed 4th in 12:37 and Lovingood’s Grace Ellsworth was 5th in 12:56. Marist just had too many good xc runners winning the team title by 81 points much like their Boys squad. Leading the way for the War Eagles placing 10th was Annie Magee in 13:20.
Medium School Boys
Dawson Frey from Oglethorpe County MS had been runnerup and 3rd in many invitationals this Fall, but today on the big stage the day was his as he was the Medium School Overall Champ in a fine time of 11:29. A pair of Westminster Cats ran to 2nd and 3rd as Peter Huff nipped teammate Will Wallace posting a 11:42 to Wallace’s 11:43. Nicholas Potts of Central MS Carrollton ran to 4th overall in 11:44 and rounding out the top 5 individuals was Christopher Rosselot of Decatur in 11:54. It was a nice battle for the team title as defending Champ Holy Innocents held off Holy Redeemer Catholic by 5 points. Leading the way for the Golden Bears was Owen Malcom placing 8th in 11:57 and Kent Malcom in 11th at 12:02. Holy Redeemer was paced by the 6th place finish of Charlie Heller at 11:54
Medium School Girls
Haley Hooper from Lovett was just on fire as she torched the field and course for the most outstanding performance award clocking a 12:04. Victoria Flowers from Westminster ran to 2nd place overall in 12:47, Maggie Carlton of Decatur held off Katherine Vuckovic for 3rd place in 12:51.18 with Vuckovic at 12:51.49. Jane Tullis ran unattached placing 5th in 13:01. It was an all metro Atlanta fest for the team championship. Holy Innocents prevailed once again tallying 44 points led by Eliza Harmon’s 7th place finish in 13:17 and Kate Waters in 10th. Lovett placed 2nd teamwise with 68 points edging Pace Academy by 1 point and Decatur was 4th.
Small School Boys
After the Elementary race the MS championship races began and it was extremely competitive. Landmark Christian went out hard charging with as many as 5 runners in the top 15 positions and maintained that strategy winning the team title handily with 41 points. The Eagles were led by Overall Champion 6th grader Zack Truitt’s 11:39 with Colton Wooster pitching in with a 10th place finish of 12:13. Paideia’s mostly young squad finished 2nd teamwise led by 8th grader Jack Reilly as he placed 7th in 12:01. Athens Christian made the long trek to Cochran and finished 3rd as a team led by Noah irwin’s 6th place effort in 12:00. The remainder of the top 5 Small School boys battled nearly the entire race as David DeChamplain was Overall runnerup clocking a 11:42 foolowed by raceday entry Jessie Martinez in 3rd at 11:44, William Brown of Johnson Ferry ran to 4th in 11:51 and Jaime Jacoby from George Walton Academy took 5th in 11:58.
Small School Girls
It was a very tight team race in Small School Girls as 4 teams were separated by only 16 points. Hebron Christian has really improved the past couple of years as a program on both the HS and MS level and their girls held off friendly rival Athens Christian by 7 points to seize the team title. Payton Johnson was the top harrier for Hebron placing 5th in 13:14. ACS placed 2 girls in the top 10 including Gabrielle Martin in 8th place (13:51) and Annlisa Heiss in 10th. Piper Kay from Team Fusion (a club primarily of home schooled kids) had a great run winning the Overall Championship clocking a 12:21. Faith Bobak ran unattached on the way to her 2nd place finish in 12:38. Rounding out the top 6 were Madison Britt of Prince Avenue (12:42), Mattie Harris of Calvary Day (12:53) and Bryce Phillips of Team Fusion (13:18)
JV Girls
Some great racing occurred in the JV Girls race as 3 athletes finished within :02 of each other. Elizabeth Kaye of Pace Academy won by .28 seconds in 14:31 over Abigail Pagano of Holy Innocents. Emily Wilson of Jefferson MS was 3rd about 10 meters back in 14:33. Holy Innocents and Jefferson took it to the wire fotr team honors with Holy winning by 1 point...
JV Boys
The JV Boys race was a stampede of 286 runners and Aidan Greer from nearby Dodge County (a raceday entry) took advantage winning the Overall title in 12:31. Porter Null of Holy Innocents placed 2nd in 12:54 and in 3rd place was teammate Liam Hill clocking a 13:08 leading the Golden Bears to an easy JV Boys team title. Jefferson MS placed 2nd teamwise.