Heritage XC ready for state; Craft, Chandler finish as runners-up in 7-AAAA meet
Heritage girls second, boys third at region championships
The Heritage Generals and Lady Generals will head to Carrollton High School this weekend for the Class AAAA state cross country meet after finishing in the top four of the Region 7-AAAA meet at Roper Park in Jasper last Tuesday.
Central-carroll dominated the girls’ varsity meet with 19 points as all seven runners placed in the top 15, led by freshman Lucy Barker, who won the individual championship with a time of 20:24.
Heritage (67) edged out Southeast (68) for the runner-up trophy, while Pickens (82) was the final qualifier from the region. Cedartown (147) and Ridgeland (154) placed fifth and sixth, respectively, while Northwest did not have enough runners to qualify.
Allison Craft was region runner-up as she clocked in with a time of 21:13 for Heritage. Mia Callahan (23:32) placed 11th and Lila Langston (24:09) was 14th with a new season-best. The rest of the Lady Generals’ roster featured Allie Mifflin (25:19), Mady Terry (25:24), Lily Langston (25:56, season-best) and Alexis Faul (26:15).
Mary Scott set the pace for the Lady Panthers with a 26:30, followed by Cate Voyles (26:36), Moriah Dawson (26:54), Sydney Finch (27:11), Paige Blanchard (28:08), Aubree Bagwell
(29:50) and Macie Boren (29:50).
Host Pickens won the boys’ meet with 26 points, getting a 16:37 from the individual winner, Seth Lewis. Southeast and Heritage tied for second with 71 points, but the Raiders’ sixth-fastest runner placed higher than the Generals’ sixth-fastest runner, giving the Raiders the tiebreaker. Cedartown (94) was fourth and final team to qualify for state.
Central (114), Northwest (170) and Ridge
land (184) rounded out the team standings.
Heritage’s Gavin Chandler was the meet’s individual runner-up with a time of 17:10, a new personal-record. Davis Justice ran a season-best 18:39 for the Generals to place 12th and Cecil Bussey crossed the line in 18:58 (PR) to place 16th. The rest of the Heritage lineup featured Collin Black (19:04), Jake Krajesky (19:12), Griffin Black (19:39, PR), and Ryan Walker (19:43).
Beau Baker led Ridgeland with a 19:33, followed by Josh Wingard (19:37), A.J. Walker (20:41), Kevin Schmelzer (20:45), Sam Dickson (20:45), Matthew Cole (20:47) and Henry Holden (22:57).
Grayson Stallings was fourth in the JV race for Heritage with a 20:30, while Gauge Sartin (20:44) was fifth, Steven Burchard (20:47) was sixth and Will Waldrop (21:32) was 11th. Also running for the JV Generals was Isaiah Bryant (21:33), Landon Albright (21:48), Juan Martinez (22:12), Gabriel Leal (23:20), Brayden Krajesky (24:29) and Will Kelley (24:55).
Racing for the Panthers in the boys’ JV race was Luke Wilhelm (21:53), Jayden Curtis (22:44), Destin Hoover (23:16), Sean Gifford (24:13), Brently Hayes (25:53) and Peter Tracy (28:36).
Gracey Mccoy (30:16) ran in the girls’ JV race for Heritage.