Gordon Lee takes three of four region cross country first-place trophies

The Gordon Lee Trojans and Lady Trojans saw their cross country runners win individual Region 6-A Public School championships on Thursday, but the group only took one region team championship trophy back to Chickamauga.

Gordon Lee’s boys rolled to their third consecutive area championship at Darlington with 26 total points. All seven runners finished in the top 20 overall while the Trojans’ top five runners - which make up the team score - all finished in the top 13 individually.

Ian Goodwin crossed the line first with a time of 17:22 to win his first indi- vidual region title, followed by Jake Lee at 18:06 and Jasper Wilson at 18:19. Eric Rodriguez of Mount Zion-carroll finished 45 seconds later at 19:04.

Michael Hubona was seventh for the Trojans at 19:27. Carter Pullen was 13th with a time of 20:05, while Cody Mccutcheon (20:48) and Simon MCKeehan (20:57) finished 19th and 20th, respectively.

Drew Charter Senior Academy was second with 54 points, followed by Trion (57) and Atlanta Classical Academy (121). Just missing an automatic state berth was Mount Zion (128) and Bowdon (153).

As expected, Gracie O’neal dominated the girls’ individual race, finishing with a time of 19:46 to win the region title yet again. She finished more than two minutes in front of Serena Kapoor of Atlanta Classical Academy (22:13) and Kapoor’s teammate Anna Robbins (23:22).

However, Atlanta Classical would end up taking the region championship with 28 points. Gordon Lee finished second with 42 points, while Trion (62) and Mount Zion (94) completed the standings. All four teams will move on to the state championships this weekend.

Kaylan Jackson (23:44) was fifth for Gordon Lee, followed by Taylor Hunley (24:15) in eighth place. Kayelee Bell (25:35) finished 14th, Emily Eldridge (28:29) 18th and Lexi Tennant (30:19) 23rd to fill out the lineup for the Lady Trojans.