High School Cross Country Report: Craft, Martinez earn top-three finishes

The fourth North Georgia Cross Country League meet of the 2018 season was held at the Grove Level course in Dalton on Tuesday and it was two Whitfield County-area squads taking the team titles.

Coahulla Creek, led by overall champion Kaylee Bandy (21:38), won the girls’ title with 49 points. Calhoun was second with 71 points followed by Dalton with 74 points.

Heritage took fourth in the team standings. Allison Craft was second overall with a time of 21:56, while Lucy Hicks clocked in at 23:56 to place eighth. Lafayette was led by Hannah Dearing with a 26:17, while Macie Boren (26:47) set the pace for Ridgeland. Neither Lafayette nor Ridgeland had enough runners to qualify for the team title.

On the boys’ side, Dalton got a 17:05 from runner-up Lance Sotelo to win the team title with 69 points. Calhoun was second with 79, followed by Bradley Central with 127.

Heritage was fourth in the boys’ standings. Gavin Chandler led the way at 19:05, followed by Caleb Boyd at 19:25. Lafayette took eighth overall behind a 19:52 from Josh Perea, while Devin Henderson was next at 20:15. Will Voyles (20:57) and Eliot Jones (20:58) were the leaders for 11th-place Ridgeland, while Josiah Williams (21:03) was just a few seconds behind.

LFO was 14th overall in the boys’ varsity race, but had the overall runner-up in Erik Martinez, who completed the course in 17:24. Tommy King (19:52) also cracked the 20-minute mark for the Warriors.

Murray County’s Jesse Martinez won the boys’ individual title at 16:41.

More varsity and junior varsity results can be found on our website.