Ridgeland’s Ashley battles through tough break at state meet Heritage girls place ninth overall in Class 4A race
It wasn’t the race Ridgeland’s Gabe Ashley was hoping for, but the sophomore showed both heart and guts to fight through some bad luck as he clocked in with a 19:03 in the Class 4A state cross country meet at Carrollton High School on Saturday.
Ashley, who placed sixth in last week’s Region 6-4A meet at Heritage, lost a running cleat approximately one-quarter mile into the race, but competed with just one shoe on for the rest of the 5K event.
He placed 96th out of the 219 runners entered.
“The heel of his shoe got stepped on and (the cleat) slid off,” Ridgeland head coach Robert Hetrick explained. “If he would have stopped, he would have essentially gotten run over or been stuck towards the end of the pack, so he ran the rest of the race with one cleat.
“It wasn’t his best day, time-wise, but he showed an incredible display of toughness. He was disappointed, but he kept running hard and I was really proud of him.”
The St. Pius X won the boys’ team title with 51 points, followed by Marist (72) and Blessed Trinity (85). Ben McCoy of Blessed Trinity ran a 16:24.11 and won the individual state title by just 0.48 seconds.
Sean Parker of Pickens, the Region 6-4A champion, was fourth overall with a 16:39. The Dragons were 10th in the team standings, while Gilmer was 11th.
In the Class 4A girls’ meet, Alex Gass of Heritage had the top finish among Region 6-4A runners. Gass placed 35th with a 21:45. The Lady Generals were ninth as a team, while Northwest Whitfield was 13th.
Josie Wirtz won state with a 19:15 for Marist, who also won the team title with 34 points. Blessed Trinity (112) was a distant second, while White County (124) was third.
Complete results of all of the state championship meets can be found at ga.milesplit.com.