Weekend Action
Battle of Atlanta
Well into the 4th week of racing Brookwood boys top 7 was off but remains the best in the state. All-State Classes #1 Harrison Lady Hoyas tested a great course at Nash Farms Battlefield at the Battle of Atlanta led by Kaylee Issac's winning effort of 19:21 followed by runningmate Maria Boff in 19:45 scoring a mere 23 points and a team average of 20:16. Rayna Green led Union Grove to a 2nd place in the team standings placing 3rd overall in 19:55. Marist did not run their varsity in this race or the boys....
On the boys side Cameron Thornton ran a comfortable race looking very smooth winning the overall boys individual in 16:34. Stalking him the entire race but unable to close the gap were Dacosta Smith of Union Grove in 16:40 and teamate Brandon Cromer in 16:46. Eagle's Landing stud Bailey Roth did not run this weekend but Brian Cato had a nice effort for the Golden Eagles placing 7th in 17:13. Harrison dominated the team race led by the trio of Adam Watt, Connor Enis and Ben Gladstone scoring 43 points. Union Grove had a strong 2nd place effort with a team average time of 17:28.
The Middle School division individual champs were Whitewater MS's Parker Nail in 10:50 and the girls division was won by 7th grader Betty Jackson of Eagle's Landing MS in 12:40.
Carrollton Orthopaedic
With so many great meets to run in this weekend, the first of the 2 big Carrollton regular season meets had a slightly weaker field testing the newly re-routed course after a couple of months of construction which was a concern for many runners and coaches. Peachtree Ridge was victorious in the Championship race led by Foot Locker South contender Josh Brickell's 16:30.39 3rd place finish. #1 AAA St.Pius X made it a Lion's den on this day placing 2nd in the team standings only 3 points out and actually had a better team time at 17:06 behind the duo of Austin Sprague (16:30) and Calvin Tirrell (16:39) Zane Coburn of Grady won the individual title in 16:23.51.
Woodstock's girls proved they will be in the mix for a podium spot winning the Championship race scoring 72 points led by Morgan O'Toole's 6th place effort in 20:11 and teamate Alexandra Melehan's 9th overall in 20:18. Westminster began racing this weekend and came up just 2 points shy with 74 led by Michelle Sullivan and Sahara Fletcher as both had impressive early season runs for the Lady Cats in 20:13 and 20:17 respectively. Winning the Individual title impressively was 5A stalwart Katherine Yost of Norcross in 19:24 followed by Collins Hill veteran Chloe Whitworth in 19:45.
The Covered Bridge Run
There was some good racing at Garrard Landing Park in Roswell as the Greyhounds of Pope won the team title with a 17:17 team avg. time led by Individual champ Patrick Fleming's 16:28. Roswell placed 2nd led by the runnerup effort of Drew Kelley in 16:42. Roswell's girls had an impressive win scoring 43 points in defeating Lassiter. Sophomore Peyton Thomas led the Lady Aliens to the top clocking a 19:38. Foot Locker South contender Marcie Merriman of Lassiter won the individual title unchallenged turning in a sweet 18:43 followed by teamate Morgan Ainslie in 19:26.
Mountain Eagle Run
This was the Inaugural debut of this meet in Clarkesville on the campus of North Georgia Tech College and it may have the potential to get much larger in the years to come. Cale Pirtle of East Jackson won the boys Individual title in 18:31 followed by Buford's Dylan Price in 18:34. Jefferson's Dragons took the team title scoring 66 points led by Trae Timmerman's 18:47. Jessie Dotson of White County dominated the girls race on the moderately challenging layout leading her team to the title in a winning time of 20:54. McEachern had a little trouble finding the venue arriving late and but ran away with the boys JV scoring 15 points.
Wesleyan Home Meet
There was some hot racing on the Wesleyan campus in a showdown of class A title contenders Wesleyan and FPD with the Wolves coming out on top even defeating 4A Dunwoody and 3A John's Creek scoring 90 points. Veteran Bradley Cossett led the pack of Wolves placing 3rd overall in 16:47. 1A title contender Gray Lindley of FPD ran a strong race on the challenging layout with an impressive 16:14. I heard Galloway may not have ran at full strength this race.
Another race, another decisive victory by Foot Locker All-American Grace Tinkey as she flat out tore it up vanishing from the field in 17:45. Teamate Victoria Coppage placed 2nd overall helping seal the team win for the Lady Vikings clocking a 19:27. John's Creek star Allie Buchalski placed 3rd overall in 19:38 spurring the Lady Glads to 2nd in the team race.
Lee County Invitational
Way down south in Leesburg it had to be a little hot, but the course ran fast as Hunter Honeycutt from Tift County (also a tremendous tri-athlete) ran away with the title as he torched the course in 15:38 leading Tift to the team title with 73 points for a narrow win over Valdosta (84) Jacob Kennedy led host school Lee County placing 2nd in 16:41 and Grif Rutherford of T'ville placed 3rd overall in 16:48.
The Lady Bulldogs of Thomasville had a surprising performance winning the team overall with 54 points led by the duo of Rachel Smith in 21:30 and Kara Meng in 21:32. The Individual winner came down from Houston County as Megan Asadian clocked a 20:31 enroute to victory. Anna Lee Atwater of Tift placed 2nd in 20:56.