Tucker Henderson earns sixth straight top three finish
LaFayette sophomore Tucker Henderson had his lowest finish of the 2021 cross country season on Thursday night...and still placed third overall.
The Rambler standout made it six top three’s in six races this season and did so against a deep, expanded field at a North Georgia Cross Country League (NGXCL) meet on the Grove Level Church course in Dalton.
Against 172 other runners representing 24 teams as far north as Athens, Tenn. and as far south as Rome, Ga., Henderson — already with four wins and a runner-up showing to his credit this year — crossed the finish line in 17:21, his third-best time of the season and his third straight finish under 17:30.
Ooltewah’s Chance Underwood nipped Rome’s Tucker Wright at the tape to win the individual title. Both clocked in with identical times of 17:04.
Dalton won the team title with 57 points, followed by Rome (80) and Mc
Minn County (153). A total of 23 of the 24 schools in attendance had enough runners to qualify for the team awards.
LaFayette ended up in 10th place overall, while Heritage was
14th as senior Davis Justice (31st individually) led the Generals with a time of 19:16. Junior Kale Davis (19:02) was 26th in the individual standings for 16th-place Ringgold, while freshman Jaden Kresser (21:22) was 85th for 23rd-place LFO.
On the girls’ side, Baylor had four of the top five and five of the top eight and dominated the race with 20 points, well in front of second-place Rome (90) and thirdplace Dalton (106). The Red Raiders also had the top two individual finishers in sophomore Mae Mae
Powe (19:15) and freshman Addi Greene (19:18).
The top finisher from either Catoosa or Walker County was Heritage junior Mia Callahan, who was 32nd out of 144 runners with a time of 23:44 in the varsity race. The Lady Generals were 11th overall, followed by 12th-place Ringgold, who got a 37th-place finish from freshman Claire Brumfield (24:09).
LaFayette, who placed 15th as a team, was led by junior Madison Todd (24:53), who finished 49th. There were 24 teams in the varsity race, 19 of which were eligible to score points. Freshman Kaliona Liberty (35:30) was 48th in the JV race for LFO.
Neither Gordon Lee nor Ridgeland had any runners compete on Thursday.
The next NGXCL meet will be Tuesday, Oct. 19 with the Fast Break Challenge back at Heritage High School.