JD Hosts Southern Georgia XC Championships
The Jeff Davis cross country program hosted the Southern Georgia XC Championships last Thursday. The event has become the largest cross country event in south Georgia over the last several years, as it brings in almost a 1,000 runners from 30 high school and 17 middle school teams.
In the middle school boys race, Ignacio Rubio continues to lead the way for the JDMS boys squad. Rubio finished 14th overall with a time of 13:01.90. The boys squad finished 6th overall in a field of 13 scoring teams, there were four teams that did not have enough runners to score.
Jade Franco continues to lead the JDMS girls as she finished 11th overall with a time of 15:04.00. The girls team with Franco followed by a strong group (Worthington, Talamantez, Valdelamar, Avila, Castro, Boatright, and Lewis) finished second overall to a strong Richmond Hill team that dominated both the boys and girls races.
The high school races got off to a crazy start. During the JV race a lightning strike brought the meet to a standstill as teams had to take cover in the JDMS gym or on the bus for the 30 minute delay. After the first delay as teams headed back out to start the varsity races another strike sent teams searching for cover yet again. At that point several HS teams decided to pack up and leave, however about half of the 30 high school teams decided to stick around and wait out the second weather delay. After about an hour and 15 minute delay, teams once again started warming up for the race. Running out of daylight the coaches made the decision to run the boys and girls races at the same time, to make for an interesting race.
Pierce Parlor and Ellie Kate Marchant led the way for the boys and girls teams. Parlor (18:09.30) was 13th in the boys race, while Marchant (23:12.80) was 17th in the girls race. Overall, both high school teams finished third and brought home the Medium School division trophy. Bleckley County won the Small School division for both boys and girls and Richmond Hill won the Large School division for both as well. Despite the weather delays and tough course conditions after the rain and lightning, the meet produced a lot of faster times for most of the runners.
The middle school teams will be back in action Sept. 21 at the Toombs County Bulldog Invitational, while the high school teams will travel Friday to Cartersville and race on Saturday for the Wingfoot XC Classic hosted by the Atlanta Track Club.
