GL XC teams sweep Walker County Championships
The Gordon Lee High School cross country teams swept the 6th Annual Walker County Cross County Championships at LaFayette High School this past Thursday afternoon.
The Lady Trojans’ 25 points was five better than LaFayette (30), while Ridgeland did not have enough runners to post a team score. Meanwhile, the Trojans also won the boys’ team title with 25 points, followed by LaFayette (33) and Ridgeland (78).
Gordon Lee’s girls had the individual winner in Haley Hartman, who clocked in with a 23:19. Cora Fehr was third overall and tied her season-best with a 25:07, while Addie Triplett (25:53) placed fifth.
Sixth-place Makenna Evans also tied her season-best (26:25), while 10th-place Madilyn Bailey (28:57) and Mallory Reeves (30:53) rounded out the lineup. Bailey also set a new season-best.
LaFayette got a 24:10 from Madison Todd, who finished second overall. Dakota Tabor (25:08) was fourth, followed by Brittany Aguero (26:38) and Natalie Ball (27:07), who were seventh and eighth, respectively.
Alethae Hendrix (28:29) was ninth with a new season-best, while the rest of the Lady Ramblers included Teara Snider (30:14), Olivia Cornejo (40:43) and Mattilee Massey (40:52).
Ridgeland got a fifth-place showing from Mary Scott with a season-best 25:49, while Aubree Bagwell was 10th with a 28:23.
Sydney Finch (29:43) and Angelina Ayala (46:51), also ran for the Lady Panthers, both setting season-best times.
For the boys’ race, third-place Carson Carpenter set the pace with a season-best 19:31, followed by fourth-place Walker Johnston (19:39), fifth-place Carter Pullen (19:40), sixth-place Hunter Gordy (19:43) and seventh-place Jackson Ellis (20:27).
Also running for the Trojans was Andrew Bailey (21:37), Nason Deaux (21:44) and Joey Bowers (28:47). Those three joined Pullen and Gordy in setting new seasonbest times.
Tucker Henderson won for the fifth time in eight races for LaFayette this fall, crossing the finish line in 17:44, while teammate Kade Ballew was second overall with a season-best of 19:01.
The remainder of the Ramblers’ roster featured ninth-place Eli Hudson (20:49), 10th-place Alex Hollaway (21:02, seasonbest), Nathan Ball (21:09), Jacob Hamilton (21:31), Scott Sanford (22:22), Jessee Bradford (24:33, season-best), Jacob Gilbreath (26:21), Carson Braccini (28:46), and Daniel Holloway (43:43).
Kevin Schmelzer was the highest finisher for Ridgeland as his time of 20:31 was enough for eighth place. Also running for the Panthers were Luke Wilhelm (22:48), Henry Holden (22:58), Jayden Curtis (23:49), Ben Wilhelm (26:18, season-best), Roger Collins (27:45), Brently Hayes (28:12, season-best), Isaias Bautista (28:20, season-best), and Ethan Kennedy (38:15, season-best).