Ridgeland’s Gabe Ashley qualifies for state, earns All-Region honors

Neither the Ridgeland nor LaFayette High School cross country teams advanced to the state meet, but Panther runner Gabe Ashley will be heading to compete in Carrollton this Saturday as an individual.

Ashley clocked in with a 17:33 on the Heritage High School 5K course this past Thursday to earn a sixth-place finish and automatically qualified for the Class 4A state meet.

The top six runners, regardless of where their teams finished in the standings, earned invites to state.

Ashley was also named to the All-Region team as one of the top 10 finishers in the race. He was the only Walker County runner to receive the honor.

“We are extremely proud of Gabe’s AllRegion finish and for making the state meet,” Ridgeland head coach Robert Hetrick said. “He is the first state qualifier that we’ve had in 16 years and if anyone deserves it, he does. He has run consistently on his own since last season. As a growing and improving program, Gabe’s accomplishments encourage us that we are heading in the right direction.”

Sean Parker of Pickens cruised to the Region 6-4A boys’ individual title with a 16:21, beating Gilmer’s Luke Stolz (16:59) by nearly 40 seconds. Heritage’s Jerryd Tennyson (17:24) was fourth.

Pickens won the team title with 40 points, just edging Gilmer (43) for the top spot. Southeast Whitfield (100) and Heritage (116) claimed the other two spots for state. Northwest Whitfield (122), Ridgeland (136) and LaFayette (173) rounded out the standings.

Also running for the Panthers were Coby Voyles (18:32), Bode Tucker (19:09), Eliot Jones (20:10), Myers Tucker (20:27), Will Voyles (20:32) and Brandon Hair (20:44).

Mason Burkett paced LaFayette with an 18:44, followed by Matthew Newsom (18:53), Trey Henderson (19:59), Devin Henderson (20:00), Eric Hu (20:30), Noah Armstrong (20:41) and Beau Thrash (20:53).

On the girls’ side, Heritage won the region title on their home course with 30 points. Pickens runner Sabrina Young won the girls’ individual title with a 20:40, but the Lady Generals would claim the next three spots and had six runners place in the top 12 to finish with 30 points.

Heritage’s Noor Sabeeh was second with a 20:57, followed by teammates Alex Gass (21:12) and Caylee Carpenter (21:57).

LaFayette’s Kaci Rogers led the Walker County contingent with a 24:20, good enough for 25th place overall. Rounding out the roster for the Lady Ramblers were Brianna Minor (26:25), Ali Gilbreath (26:29), Rachel Graham (29:29), Hannah Elliot (30:05) and Lauren Pike

(30:54).

Marina Mosgrove competed for Ridgeland and finished in 33:07.

The top four teams advanced to the state meet. Joining Heritage will be Pickens (59 points), Northwest Whitfield (62) and Gilmer (98). Southwest Whitfield (115) was fifth and LaFayette (167) was sixth. Ridgeland did not have enough runners to qualify for the team title.

Ashley and the rest of the Class 4A boys will race at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday at the Carrollton High School course.