Carey places third at Region meet
Sonoraville cross country runner Andrew Carey was third last week at the AAA Region 6 meet at Grove Level Park in Dalton, highlighting both the boys and girls individual places at the event.
Carey ran an excellent race and was with a number of Coahulla Creek distance specialists at the end of the 3,000-meter course as the Colts were not only the host school, but they won the boys team competition with just 37 points.
Six of the nine schools in the region had at least one individual finish in the top 10, giving them a representative at the state meet and only two runners in the field had closing times under 18 minutes.
LaFayette senior Tucker Henderson was the 3A Region 6 individual winner, breaking the tape with a 17:35.6 to finish 10 seconds before runner-up Christopher Patten Recto, who was second with a 17:45.7.
Carey was third for the bronze medal with the fastest time under 19 minutes (18:24.4) and the Sonoraville standout was 15 seconds in
front of Ringgold senior Kale Davis, who was fourth (18:39.4). Adairsville racer Griffin Bozeman rounded out the top five (18:41.6) as the runners began to cross the finish line in rapid fashion from that point on.
With all five of their runners that counted in the scoring finishing in the top 11, Coahulla Creek was a bigtime winner, finishing over 50 points ahead of second-place Ringgold.
The Tigers were second with 91
and just ahead of LaFayette and Rockmart, which ended tied for third place with 96 points each.
Adairsville just edged out North Murray or fifth place with Adairsville scoring 121 points and North Murray ending with 123. Sonoraville was next with 196.
For the Phoenix, Kevin Garcia and Willy Soldevilla were second and third respectively for their team and 41st and 42nd overall in the race
MIDDLE with Garcia closing with a 22:72.2 and Soldevilla had a 22:36.2 as the pair were not far from each other the entire race.
Alex Trejo was fourth and Jose Garcia came in fifth.
On the girls side, the Phoenix scored 147 points to place fifth in Region 6 with one girls finishing in the top 20.
Ringgold was the Region champ, ending up just two points ahead of Rockmart, in a close race for first place.
Ringgold was first with 49 points, having three of the first nine girls that crossed the finish line and four of the top 11 overall.
Rockmart had two of the first five, including the region runner-up in Tristan Landgren (22:51.1), but their next three runners were 13th, 15th, and 16th, earning them second in the team standings.
LaFayette was third, garnering 71 points, and the Ramblers had two of the top 10 finishers with Madison Todd coming in third (22:54.9) and then the tenth place runner.
The home team Coahulla Creek was fourth with 91 points and Colt runner Kennedy Hughes was the individual gold medalist, placing first (22:35.7) in the field of nearly 60 runners.
The Phoenix were next and were led by Liz Bautista, who finished first for her team and 19th overall with a 25:23.8 time.
The next four Sonoraville runners to cross the finish line were less than 95 seconds apart and ran well.
Janelle Lopez was second for the Phoenix and 26th at 27 minutes even. She was 40 seconds ahead of Brynleigh Harris, who was third (27:39.5) for the her team and 31st.
Natalie Ayala came in fourth for the red-and-black and 35th (28:12.2) in the Region, just ahead of Kynlee Austin, who was the last girl to add to their score, placing 36th (28:33.3).
Ellen Robertson and Kimberly Eleria were the other two Sonoraville runners to race.
The Lady Phoenix finished just ahead of Murray County, which had 152 points.
North Murray was seventh in the team listings, followed by LakeviewFort Oglethorpe. Adairsville did not have the five nunners necessary to be included in the team standings.