Walker County runners get one final tune-up before region meets
The regular season for Walker County cross country teams wrapped up with the Front Runner Championships at Baylor this past Thursday.
It was a big afternoon for Ridgeland, Gordon Lee and LaFayette as 25 runners either tied or set new season-best and personal records.
Gordon Lee’s boys were 13th overall in the team standings with an average of 19:16.
Jasper Wilson (29th overall out of 237 runners in the field) paced the Trojans with an 18:09, while Justin Collins (46th overall) clocked in at 18:40. Filling out the varsity lineup was Jake Wright (19:45), Bailey Burns (19:51), Ian Goodwin (19:54), Rob Napier (21:01) and Braxton Ledford (22:18).
Gabe Ashley was 22nd overall with a 17:53 to help Ridgeland to a 15th place team finish. Coby Voyles (18:52), Bode Tucker (19:33), Eliot Jones (20:09), Myers Tucker (20:15), Brandon Hair (20:34) and Will Voyles (20:42) also ran varsity for the Panthers.
LaFayette ended the day in 21st place behind a 19:03 from Mason Burkett and a 19:21 from Matthew Newsom. The rest of the Rambler roster included Noah Armstrong (20:06), Trey Henderson (20:07), Devin Henderson (20:27), Eric Hu (20:31) and Beau Thrash (21:14).
McCallie won the boys’ title with 91 points, followed by Baylor (103) and Stone Memorial (110). Thomas Porter of Signal Mountain won the individual title with a 16:25, beating Chase Faudi of the Chattanooga Patriots by less than two seconds.
On the girls’ side, Katelyn Gilliam was the fastest Walker County finisher with a 24:10. Sarah Young ran a 25:21 and Emma Cate Dendy clocked in at 26:23 for the Lady Trojans, who did not have enough runners to qualify for the team score.
Kaci Rogers paced the Lady Ramblers with a 24:18, followed by Maddie Stier (24:42), Brianna Minor (26:42), Ali Gilbreath (27:51), Rachel Graham (28:52), Hannah Elliot (29:40) and Lauren Pike (29:53). LaFayette placed 21st as a team.
Madison Morris (30:19) and Marina Mosgrove (33:22) competed in the varsity race for the Ridgeland Lady Panthers.
Baylor cruised to the girls’ team title with 47 points, followed by GPS (81) and Heritage (123). Signal Mountain’s Taylor Luthringer (19:03) coasted to the individual win by over 35 seconds.
In the boys’ junior varsity race, Jake Lee paced Gordon Lee with a 21:30, followed by Cole Collins (21:41), Haven Howard (23:55), Weston Beagles (24:19), Alex Stone (26:29) and Owen Frost (27:48).
R.J. Sievers was the top JV runner for LaFayette with a 20:49. The rest of the lineup included Johnathan Romans (21:01), William Sainthill (21:03), Sam Story (22:41), Jake Price (22:48), Jordan Capello (23:38), Jarrod Sitton (24:17), Mason King (24:38), Jacob Clarke (24:52), Austin McKin (25:36), Wes Ingram (27:26), Dakota Mitchell (29:31) and Kris Witherow (30:18).
Running in the JV race for the Ridgeland boys were Juan Velazquez (21:02), Jacob Gadd (22:43), Josiah Williams (22:51), A.J. Walker (23:12), Dakota Dehart (23:55), David Kernea (25:09), Preston Perreault (25:11), McKinley Mosgrove (27:34), Logan Couch (27:55), Corey Housley (28:04) and Cesar Pichardo (28:04).
Running in the girls’ JV race were Kylie Walker (30:22) and Michaela Russell (32:01) for Gordon Lee and Sierra Jackson (31:50) and Rylee Henderson (40:00) for LaFayette.
Gordon Lee will race in their area meet at Darlington on Thursday, while LaFayette and Ridgeland will compete in their area meet at Heritage that same afternoon.
Carrollton will host the GHSA state championship on Nov. 5.