AAA
Boys Team
With St. Pius win over Woodward at the region championship the boys team contest is now a 2 team race between St. Pius and North Hall. North Hall and the rest of AAA have been looking up at Pius for the last two years. Is this the weekend that North Hall finally leaps ahead? In spite of their loss at region Woodward looks to be 3rd at worst. Can they regroup and make a run a week later? The rest of the boys top 10 is wide open with 10 – 12 teams looking to fill the final 7 top 10 spots.
Boys Individual
Last year 4 of the top 5 boys times at the state meet came from AAA. With all 4 of those runners graduating the expectation was that there would be a sizable drop off this year. To their credit the boys this year have responded with some very good performances this year. Three seniors – Adam Jones, Zane Coburn and Brandon Lawson along with two 10th graders, Austin Sprague and Bailey Roth, lead the way. Brandon Lawson blistered the Region 8AAA course with a very nice 15:40 time. Is he now the favorite? He beat Sprague at the Clara Bowl but that was two months ago. Austin beat Coburn at region. Bailey is undefeated against AAA competition this year. He beat Sprague and Jones at the Atlanta Classic and has set course records in his last two races. Do any of these previous head to head matchups count next Saturday at 1PM?
Girls Team
With the quality on the boys side the last couple of years the girls sometimes get overlooked. However, this could be one of the most competitive races of the day. Right now it looks like a two team race between St. Pius and Allatoona. Both have run very well at times this year. Heritage Catoosa and Columbus regularly bring it on the day of the state meet. Does one of them sneak ahead of the top 2? North Hall has been consistent all year and also peak well for state. Are they in the hunt? In AAA girls it is not unusual for a team to seemingly come out of no where to win the whole thing. Could this year’s dark horse be ….White County?
Girls Individual
Again, there are a group of individuals that could earn the title of girls champion. Kristina Delpeche has run the fastest time in AAA this year and looks to improve on last year’s second place finish. Erika Taylor has run well this year and will try to defend her title. The fastest adjusted time of the year goes to Eagle’s Landing’s Gabby Roth. Several other girls that look to be in the mix are Anna Leigh Nix of Veterans, Devon Dabney and Tessa Shwarz of St. Pius and Jessie Dotson of White County.