RUNNING TIGHT
♦ Armuchee sweeps the region team titles as Model runners claim first overall.
Scott Pierce held his breath for nearly an hour Tuesday evening, waiting on the official results of the Region 7-AA cross country championships to be revealed.
The Armuchee coach and the rest of the Indians knew their attempt at a fourth straight region team title had been challenged by fellow Floyd County program Model on the 5K course at Georgia Highlands College.
But there was sweet relief awaiting Pierce and his team.
Despite no runners finishing in the top six, Armuchee’s boys won the 7-AA title with a final score of 54, 10 points ahead of Model, which had the top two runners in Simon Schabort and Jordan Hellier.
“I had no idea if we had won or not,” Pierce said. “I usually try to keep the scores myself, and whenever I do I get it wrong. So I decided not to this year and just wait. And we’re excited. The guys were really wanting four in a row.”
They weren’t celebrating alone as the Lady Indians won the girls’ team title with 32 points.
Coosa’s girls finished second with 49. It’s the third year in a row Armuchee has swept the 7-AA team championships.
“I was scared to death of Model,” Pierce said. “All season long I told them Model’s going to beat us if we don’t keep working. And they pushed us just to get through. It was close enough that I was fully prepared for them to call Model out as the winner.”
The Blue Devils were paced by Schabort’s scorching time of 16 minutes, 46 seconds. Hellier came in at 17:26, a full 40 seconds behind the freshman. Meanwhile, Model’s Jessie Schroeder improved her personal best as well to win the girls’ individual title with a time of 20:26.
Teammate Elizabeth Marshall finished fourth overall with a time of 22:15. The two are the only girls running varsity for Model this season.
“I think when you look at Jessie and Simon they love the sport of running,” Model coach Paige Reece said. “And they have that self determination and self discipline to run on their own all the time. They put in the hours and the miles this summer and this is the payoff out here.”
The top four teams and the top six individuals at Tuesday’s meet qualify for next week’s GHSA State Cross Country Championships in Carrollton. The Class AA races begin at 11 a.m. on Nov. 2 as part of the two-day event.
Aside from Armuchee and Coosa, the girls’ teams from Rockmart and Gordon Central will run at state, as will Schroeder and Marshall. On the boys’ side, Gordon Central came in third in the team standings, while Coosa finished three points ahead of Pepperell for fourth.
The Dragons will be represented at state, however, as Christian Weatherby finished third with a time of 17:32 and Tom Vincent was sixth at 17:38. Armuchee’s Davis Yeargan kenship came in eighth, but came in seventh overall with the next two Blue Devils finished a time of 17:55, and four of 23rd and 30th. the next seven finished were “We knew their first two Indians to give them all of guys were going to run really their scoring runners in the well,” Pierce said of Model. top 14. Model’s Duncan Blan- “Our goal was to pack close
together and get five guys as high as we could. Really, we wanted to get seven ahead of anybody else who could score because we pack really well. We run close together.”
Armuchee’s girls were led by freshman Shelby Green, who came in second with a time of 20:57. She was followed by teammate Grace Stanley at 22:09, while junior Chloe Purdy, who had been the Lady Indians’ top runner and region champion the last two years, finished seventh with a time of 23:37.
“We were worried,” Pierce said of the girls’ race. “Chloe has struggled this year with some asthma problems and things like that. She may not have run her best time today, but she did exactly what we needed her to do to make sure we won. She gave it everything she had.”
Malorie Bradfield was the top finisher for Rockmart’s girls with a time of 22:28, good for fifth overall, while Gordon Central’s Jasmine Velasco came in sixth at 23:21. Coosa’s Josh Martinez ran a strong race to hang with the lead pack and finished fourth in the boys’ race with a 17:34. Gordon Central’s Joey Kowalczewski was fifth at 17:35.