Start of the Girls Varsity Race (all pics by Bruce Taylor)
It was fine morning of racing at the well designed Lamar Murphy Park course as 8-AAA teams decided who was the best and what schools would be moving on to State.
At it again...Morales of East Jackson & Honiotes from Hart County
Girls Race- Sue Ann Morales of East Jackson and Audrey Honiotes once again had a duel that lasted nearly the entire race. They swapped leads in the first mile, but Morales mad her move the final mile and pulled away winning again in a fast time of 18:14. Honiotes cruised in 2nd at 18:30, perhaps backing off some near the end saving a little gas for State.
Morales makes her move during the last mile!
8-AAA will be well represented in Carrollton next Saturday as Hart County's girls proved their # 3 AAA ranking scoring 33 points with a 20:43 team average.
Bryce Phillips had a nice race for Hart County
Leading Hart was Honiotes in 2nd (18:30) and frosh Bryce Phillips 4th (20:16). Jackson County was a surprising 2nd led by the duo of Sr Monica Jiminez taking 5th in 20:53 and Jr Megan Kral in 6th 21:00.
Jackson's Monica Jiminez and Megan Kral
It was very tight for the last 2 State spots but Jefferson HS was 3rd as a team led by soph Maggie Dyer's 3rd Overall at 20:06. Oconee was 7 points back securing the final team spot besting Morgan County by a slim 4 point margin.
Maggie Dyer placed 3rd Overall for Jefferson
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Varsity Boys- East Jackson had been slowly closing the gap on #3 Oconee County in October, but came up 6 points short as the Warriors' depth from 3-5 was too much to overcome.
Chase Kennedy flat out ran away with the Boys Overall win
Chandler Kennedy was a strong 2nd for East Jackson
Chase Kennedy dropped the field the 2nd part of the race and was on auto-pilot till the finish posting a nice winning time of 15:40. Chandler Kennedy separated from Michael Hans of Oconee the last mile and pushed across 2nd at 16:18. Chaise Etheridge of East pr'd flying across the line in 5th for the Eagles in 16:59.
Michael Hans led the best Warriors squad since 2005 to the Region title
Hans then began the Warriors scoring placing 3rd Overall in 16:33 with Issac Krumm taking 4th at 16:47. Oconee's 3-5 runners were key in winning the Region title including: Jake Hadden 7th (17:05), Harrison Morris 8th (17:19) and Davis Hardell placed 12th.
Issac Krumm was solid again placing 4th Overall for OC, Addison Cochran of Jefferson in tow..
Jefferson was a strong 3rd 14 points behind East Jackson and should move up the polls next week to 5th. The Dragons were paced by Addison Cochran's 6th Overall at 17:00 and Ian Byers 9th in 17:21. Jackson County was comfortably 4th punching their ticket to State led by Nathan Galloway's 10th place finish (17:25)
Oconee's depth will be needed to push Westminster or Blessed at Carrollton 11-7
Below are the performances entered for the meet that met the national silver standard.
| HS Girls | |||
| 5,000 Meter Run | 18:14.22 | Sue Ann Morales | East Jackson High School |
| 5,000 Meter Run | 18:30.55 | Audrey Honiotes | Hart County |
| HS Boys | |||
| 5,000 Meter Run | 15:40.64 | Chase Kennedy | East Jackson High School |
| 5,000 Meter Run | 16:18.77 | Chandler Kennedy | East Jackson High School |