Gordon Lee sweeps Walker County XC Championships

The Gordon Lee cross country teams captured the 2018 Walker County Championships after a damp and at times muddy afternoon last Tuesday on the course at Lafayette High School.

The Trojans went 1-2 at the line as Ian Goodwin (16:52) and Jake Lee (17:47) took the top two spots, respectively. Gordon Lee edged out Lafayette, 35-36, while Ridgeland finished third in the team standings with 50 points.

Devin Henderson placed third individually for the Ramblers with a time of 17:56, followed by Lafayette’s Josh Perea (18:29) and Gordon Lee’s Michael Hubona (18:52). The rest of the top 10 included Josiah Williams of Ridgeland (18:53), Lafayette’s William Sainthill (18:59), Lafayette’s Andrew Long (19:02), Ridgeland’s Will Voyles (19:07) and Ridgeland’s Eliot Jones (19:19).

Rounding out the roster for the victorious Trojans was Carter Pullen (19:37), Cody Mccutcheon (20:16), Luke Taylor (20:51), Simon Mckeehan (20:54) and Braxton Ledford (21:56).

Also racing for the Ramblers was Daniel Lopez (20:06), Steven Sanford (20:13), Trey Henderson (20:55), Charles Davis (22:06), Lucas Dierking (22:39), R.J. Sievers (22:50), Crandale Jackson (22:56), Gage Henderson (23:12) and Johnathan Norris (23:24).

Also competing for the Panthers was A.J. Walker (19:55), Beau Baker (20:00), Kris Walker (22:07), Joseph Brown (22:40), Timothy Hollister (23:02), David Kernea (23:32) and Logan Couch (N/A).

On the girls’ side, defending Class 1A Public School state champion Gracie O’neal crossed the line in 19:37 to win by a comfortable margin with Lafayette’s Hannah Dearing (23:11) placing second. Kaylan Jackson of Gordon Lee (24:24) was third, while her teammate Taylor Hunley (24:49) was fourth.

The remainder of the top 10 featured four Ridgeland runners in Macie Boren (25:23), Trinity Deane (25:45), Emily Scott (26:35) and Sydney Finch (26:37), and Lafayette runners Hope Mcclure (26:38) and Caitlyn Watson (27:24).

Gordon Lee also won the girls’ team title with 31 points. Lafayette was second with 48, while Ridgeland did not have enough runners to qualify in the team standings.

Kayelee Bell finished in 28:00 for the Lady Trojans, followed by Emilie Eldridge (30:41), while the rest of the Lafayette contingent included Elizabeth Perkins (34:18), Bianca Rogers (34:20) and Jada Groves (N/A).

Focus will now shift to the respective region meets as teams and runners look to qualify for state. Gordon Lee’s area tournament will be held at Darlington in Rome on Thursday (Oct. 25), while Lafayette and Ridgeland were slated to compete at Edwards Park in Dalton this Tuesday (Oct. 23).

Heritage sophomore Allison Craft picked up another top 10 finish this past Thursday as she placed 10th overall with a 20:29 in the Front Runner Cross Country Championships at the Baylor School in Chattanooga.

Kalei Howard (23:14), Lilly Black (23:18), Lucy Hicks (23:32), Skye Remko (23:34), Emma Tennyson (24:08) and Morgan Easley (25:24) rounded out the Lady Generals’ varsity roster. Heritage placed seventh in the team standings with 188 points.

Baylor (64) was first, followed the home-school based Chattanooga Patriots (71) and Signal Mountain (93). Rhea County’s Lesley Green blistered the course in 18:40 to win the individual title by nearly a full minute over Patriots’ standout Kathryn Vradenburgh (19:40).

In the boys’ varsity race, Gavin Chandler had the fastest time among Heritage varsity runners at 17:17. Ryan Craft (18:24) was second, followed by Dakota Carter (18:40), Joel Lewis (18:40), Luke Shackelford (19:04), Davis Justice (19:25) and Nhan Le (19:37).

Red Bank’s Cole Bullock clocked in at 15:21 to beat Chase Faudi of the Patriots (15:54) by over a half-minute. Mccallie finished with 36 points to win the team title with Chattanooga Christian (82) and the Patriots (109) rounding out the top three.

Heritage finished eighth with 242 points.

In the girls’ JV race, Emily Woody placed sixth for Heritage with a time of 24:02. Gracie Mccoy (26:32) and Brylei Howard (27:22) also competed for the Lady Generals.

Caleb Boyd was the winner for the Generals in the boys’ JV race as he crossed the line in 17:45 to win by five seconds. Also participating in the race for Heritage was Will Waldrop (20:12), Stephen Burchard (20:20), Christian Merrell (20:21), Lance Marshall (20:36), Justin Lee (20:43), Jake Krajeskiy (20:53), Hunter Mccrary (21:58), Aven Welch (21:58), Juan Guzman (21:59), Simon Rhodes (22:17), Jackson Edwards (22:24), Gabriel Leal (22:28), Will Kelly (23:23), Branam Hayden (24:03), Ethan Clark (24:17), Landon Albright (24:23), J.T. Halleron (26:33) and Gene Gonzalez (31:10).

Heritage will compete in the Region 6-AAAA Championships at Edwards Park in Dalton on Tuesday, Oct. 23, starting at 4:15 p.m.