Region Madness Weekend ReCap

Boys:  At the 7A  Area 4 Championship, Brookwood hung on to win the boys team title. It wasn't easy though, as Norcross pushed the Broncs' to the wire only 5 points back. Brookwood had 3 finishers in the top 7 making the difference led by Will Bray in 3rd going 16:34. Mohammed Mursal led the Blue Devils placing 8th overall in 17:05 with Gabriel Schlicht a stride back at 17:06 for 9th. Chase Condra of Peachtree Ridge ran away from the field for the Overall win at 15:56 and will be the only Lion to Q' for State. 

Teams Qualifying for State: Brookwood, Norcross,  Mill Creek, Parkview, Lakeside DK and North Gwinnett

Girls: Mill Creek won a hard fought battle on the girls side, with 5 schools within 23 points of each other. The Lady Hawks' did it with a tight pack from positions 13-24 with a 1-5 split of :33  Ana Margaret Miller and Hadley Rhine led that pack at 13th (20:54) and 14 (20:55) 

Teams Qualifying for State: Mill Creek, Lakeside DeKalb, North Gwinnett, Brookwood, Norcross and Mountain View

Boys: It was a 3 school battle of unranked 7A squads for the Boys team title, with Grayson coming away with the hardware with a 7 point win over Archer. The Rams ate up 3 of the top 6 spots led by Overall champ Chris Cherono who churned out a time of 16:16, Ty Freeman 4th (16:57) and Colby Freeman 6th (17:13)

Archer had 2 in the top 10 including Myles Collins 2nd in 16:23 and Mac McCartney 7th at 17:44. Shiloh had a great race taking 3rd as a team 9 points behind the Tigers having 3 in the top 10 led by Robert Cranston in 5th at 17:06. Alec Munger made the long trip for Lowndes worth the trip leading the Vikes' to Q' for State in 4th taking 3rd overall in 16:56

Teams Qualifying for State: Grayson, Archer, Shiloh, Lowndes, Camden and Colquitt.

Girls: Metro squad Archer dominated the girls race scoring 31 points. The Lady Tigers placed 4 in the top 7 spots led by Sarah McCartney in 2nd (20:26) and Kelly Connerley 3rd (20:58) Tift County was a strong 2nd team wise as Emily Golden raced to the Overall title in 19:44 and Ainsley Toews took 4th place in 21:04. Camden made the long trek from way down southeast GA Q' for State taking 3rd as a team led by Alexa Brock taking 9th (22:33) and Alexia Vinuela 10th (22:40)

Teams Qualifying for State: Archer, Tift County, Camden, Shiloh, Grayson and Lowndes.

Boys: In one of the best races of the weekend, 4 ranked 7A squads including #1 South Forsyth threwdown at Boling Park. South' emerged victorious by 4 points over #5 West Forsyth. Michael Patterson led the way for South' taking overall runnerup going 16:03. Jeremy Ericson led West' placing 6th at 16:12. U of Dayton commit Calan Gizelbach of Central Forsyth was Overall champ posting a 15:40 .. Milton and Lambert came down to a 6th runner tiebreak with Milton taking the nod for 3rd as team, with Lambert 4th. 

Teams Qualifying for State: South Forsyth, West Forsyth, Milton, Lambert, Walton and Roswell.

Girls: Much like the boys race, 4 ranked 7A squads were duking it out. #2 South Forsyth secured a 22 point win over #4 Walton with 3 gals in the top 9 spots led by Madelynn Cadeau in 2nd place at 18:33. Abigail Robertson was the top Lady Raider taking 3rd overall at 18:39. Villanova commit Brynne Sumner of Woodstock  controlled the girls race taking Individual honors clocking a 18:15. Milton took the 3rd team spot led by Nyah Hernandez's 4th place effort of 18:44 with Taylor Cushman a few meters back in 5th (18:48) 

Teams Qualifying for State: South Forsyth, Walton, Milton, West Forsyth, Roswell and Etowah. 

Boys: It got dark as rain showers fell throughout the Varsity races. The course held up, but runners seemed to be affected by the conditions by the time they reached the homestretch. It couldn't have been any closer for the team title with the top 2 teams in 5A, as after 5 runners were in McIntosh and Starr's Mill were deadlocked at 30.. but McIntosh won the 6th runner tiebreaker for the title. Nick Nyman of Starr's was the Overall winner posting a 15:53 with Ty Duben 3rd at 16:23. Zach Jaeger led the winning Chiefs' efforts taking 2nd overall in 16:14 with Rease Henry 4th (16:30) and transfer Alec Deboy 5th ( 16:37)

Teams Qualifying for State: McIntosh, Starr's Mill, Whitewater, Fayette County

Girls: The girls had it no better, if not worse, as the rain began to pour again just a couple minutes after the gun. One thing became obvious at the finish, that McIntosh is very strong and deep.. dominating the race (with ALL underclassmen) perfect scoring a 15 while taking 7 of the top 8 spots with a 1-5 split of :43. Leading the warpath for the Lady Chiefs were Overall champ Kayla Rose (19:04), Zoe Smith 2nd (19:09) frosh Marina Serra 3rd (19:11) and Megan Uszynski 4th (19:29)

 Teams Qualifying for State: McIntosh, Starr's Mill, Whitewater and Fayette County.

Boys: The #3 Hoyas enjoyed an easy win in their region scoring 25 points placing 5 runners in the top 8 spots. Soph Sully Shelton continued to have a great season winning Individual honors going 15:48, team mate Noah Connelly placed 3rd in 16:28. Allatoona punched their ticket for State taking 2nd as a team. The Bucs' pack running was key having a 1-5 Split of :24  Blake Morgan in 11th and Paul Ratliff 12th led the raid. Jonah Brown led Creekview to a state berth placing 5th at 16:45. Bradshaw Lathbury was key in Sequoyah securing the final team slot with a 4th place effort of 16:31. Lance Sotelo of Dalton Q'd as individual taking 2nd overall in 16:18.

Teams Qualifying for State: Harrison, Allatoona, Creekview, Sequoyah

Girls: It was #2 vs #3 in the girls race, and Harrison proved to be a bit deeper with a tighter 1-5 split than Creekview taking the title by 3 points. The lady Hoyas placed 4 in the top 9 spots led by soph Riley Perlakowski's runnerup finish in 19:28. Eliza Hackworth went sub 20 for harrison as well placing 5th in 19:42. Makena Gates of Creekview ran away with the Overall title cruising to the win in an impressive 18:04. Alysa Miles also ran well for the Grizzlies taking 4th at 19:38 and Elizabeth McTyre 6th (20:06) River Ridge edged Allatoona taking 3rd place as a team led by frosh Cayden Crismon who finished 3rd (19:34) 

Teams Qualifying for State: Harrison, Creekview, River Ridge, Allatoona

Boys: #2 Marist warmed up for State taking the team on the Double Dip course, winning the boys side of things scoring 31 points. The War Eagles' top 5 were all top 10 finishers. Leif Andersen won the overall honors in 16:31, but he had some company down the stretch including: Collin Kilgore of Flowery Branch 2nd (16:33), Karthik Kochuparambil of new school Denmark 3rd (16:38), Jaylen Mallett of Marist 4th (16:40) and Ethan Ashley of Denmark 5th (16:40) #3 Blessed Trinity took the 2nd team slot running as a pack in positions from 11-17. White County and Flowery Branch were 3rd/4th as teams, and sadly, new school Denmark missed Q' by 1 point..but Kochuparambil and Ashley Q'd as individuals! 

Teams Qualifying for State: Marist, Blessed Trinity, White County, Flowery Branch

 Girls: As expected, Marist rolled to another Region title sweeping the top 4 spots amassing a grand total of 19 points. Leading the lady War Eagles were: Kathleen Maley 1st (19:16), Kathleen Schellman (19:23), Lucy-Jewell Watson (19:26) and Emily Little (19:34) #3 Blessed Trinity was a strong 2nd as a team with an avg of 19:52. Leading the lady Titans were: Sara Bailey 5th (19:38), Hannah Miniutti 6th (19:39) and Kelly Ann Sutterfield 8th (19:44) Jaelen Alexander (13th) led White County to 3rd and Hannah Grainger helped punch the last ticket for a team for Flowery Branch taking 7th (19:40)   

Teams Qualifying for State: Marist, Blessed Trinity, White County, Flowery Branch

Boys: Ola has been a ranked 5A squad about half the season in the #9-10 spots, but the Stangs' brought it this past Saturday at Locust Grove HS taking the team title in a hotly contested team battle. Leading Ola to the winners' circle were Seniors Parker Campbell placing 5th (17:48) and Peter Nelson-Broderick 6th (17:51) #9 Union Grove was a scant 3 points back at 2nd. Domonic Macias (a top runner in 5A) took the Overall honors going 16:36 for the Wolverines. Antaures Jackson of Eagle's Landing led the Golden Eagles to 3rd place taking overall runnerup at 16:49, with team mate Leroy Russell 3rd (17:19) Locust Grove used their home course advantage to cash in on 4th as a team edging Jones County by 4 points.

Teams Qualifying for State: Ola, Union Grove, Eagle's Landing, Locust Grove

Girls: #4 Union Grove won the team title scoring 30 points led by frosh Gabby Parsons who was Individual champ going 19:27. They may have gotten a little bit more of a challenge than expected from unranked Jones County though... The reason, was because of the return of former multiple State champion Erin Leonard who had been battling illness. Leonard had a great return placing 3rd in 20:32, behind team mate Laney Doster who was overall runnerup in 20:14. Ola and Locust Grove were 3rd and 4th respectively in the team standings. Leigh Pallat led Locust' placing 4th overall in 20:50 

Teams Qualifying for State: Union Grove, Jones County, Ola, Locust Grove

Boys: In a region of 8 schools, only 4 of them managed to produce a team score, making it one of the easier regions to Q' for State in XC. Clarkston has been a media darling the past few years, and have had wild swings in the 5A rankings this Fall. The #6 Angoras swept the top 4 spots scoring 19 points. Leading the way were running in tandem were Piyo Micheale crossing 1st in 17:02.0 and Thaddee Barge 2nd a step back in 17:40.Bennett Solomon led Chamblee to a 2nd place finish taking 5th overall at 17:43.

 

Teams Qualifying for State: Clarkston, Chamblee, Arabia Mountain, SW DeKalb

Girls: Emoni Coleman of Miller Grove won the Overall honors posting a 21:42. Again, 4 schools produced team scores for this region with an actual race going on between Chamblee and SW DeKalb. Chamblee emerged victorious by 7 points, led by Hattie Carter's 5th place finish of 23:46. SW DeKalb's top runner was individual runnerup Lanee Edwards in 22:54.

Teams Qualifying for State: Chamblee, SW DeKalb, Clarkston, Miller Grove

Boys: This race was held at the 'Lovejoy Soccer Complex' so this course may not be legit, but might be.. Demetrius Carson of MLK was the overall champ in 17:15. Tucker won the team title with an 18:07 avg led by Yesahk Ergano's runnerup finish of 17:19 (both interesting looking at stats), MLK was 5 points back in 2nd (18:14 avg) led by Carson's win, Morrow was 3rd and Forest Park 4th.

Teams Qualifying for State: Tucker, MLK, Morrow, Forest Park

Girls: It was a tightly contested region girls race with 3 squads separated by just 4 points.. Mount Zion HS won the team title led by Overall champ Kiyah Pittmon's 21:54. MLK had a tighter pack, but not the horses up front falling a point short. Aaliyah Peterson was their top runner placing 7th in 23:02. Morrow placed 3 in the top 9 taking 3rd 3 points behind MLK. Taylor Jones led Morrow taking overall runnerup honors at 22:11

 Teams Qualifying for State: Mount Zion, MLK, Morrow, Forest Park

Boys: Not much XC in this AA region way down south, as only 1 team (Westwood) out of Camilla managed a team score taking the title. Walt Cochran led Westwood with his 3rd place finish. Terrell Academy swept the top 2 places with Nick Chambless the champ in 18:30 followed by Noah Metheny 2nd

Girls: Like the boys, Westwood won the gals team title. 8th grader Hannah Glass was their top runner. Allie Brown from Crisp Academy was top Individual going 23:58

Boys: Deerfield-Windsor 'perfect scored' the race with 15 points. Leading the Knights to the win was the one of GISA's top runners this Fall, as Porter Hill clocked a swift 17:03 in Americus. Tift Area edged Southland for 2nd, with my old HS sports nemesis Brookwood (Thomasville) 4th. 

Boys: Coach (Scott's) Monsignor Donovan's boys squad raced to victory down at Brentwood Academy. The Rams' placed 5 runners in the top 11 spots to secure the win. Will Auslander gored the field enroute to a winning time of 17:33. Briarwood placed 2nd, Brentwood 3rd and Gatewood 4th teamwise. 

Girls: Brentwood won the team title led by Lauren Hood's runnerup finish at 22:18. Monsignor Donovan placed 2nd as a team led by Omeka Bhatia as she was the the Overall champ going 21:13.  Briarwood placed 3rd as a team Q' for State. 

Region 1A ReCap (10-9)

Boys: This meet was held at 'The Farm House' down in Camilla, and did not seem short per stats. #9 Seminole County came away with the team title placing 3 runners in the top 6 spots led by Larry King's runnerup effort of 19:57. Baconton Charter's Jaquez Jones  won the Overall title leading the Blazers' to 2nd as a team. Pelham and Terrell County were 3rd and 4th as teams.

Girls: Only 2 schools managed to have team scores in yet a very tight race as Pelham won the region title by 2 points over Baconton Charter. Tabb Masey of Seminole County easily won the Overall title going 24:01.