CARROLLTON — The East Jackson boys and Towns County girls cross country teams each came away with state titles Saturday at the state meet at the West Georgia University Course.
East Jackson’s Chase Kennedy won the state title with a dominating individual performance finishing in a 16:01.58 time to beat Dawson County’s Jacob Poston (16:43.74) by more than 40 seconds.
Brother Chandler Kennedy finished third (16:44.05) for the Eagles and North Hall’s Devon Crow (16:50.56) took fourth. East Jackson’s Shane Shelafoe finished eighth.
The two Kennedys’ effort also helped the Eagles bring home the state title with a team total 49 points to outdistance Westminster, who finished second with 70. Lovett was third (107), Dawson County fourth (117), and North Hall finished fifth with 127 points.
For other area teams in the Class AAA boys meet, Jackson County came in ninth and Union County was 11th in the 29-team field.
In the Class A Public girls meet, Towns County nipped fellow Region 8-A foe Commerce 73 to 77 to win the title. Commerce's Alli Hay finished second in the individual race.
In the girls Class AAA competition, Dawson County was the only area team to crack the top five, finishing fifth with 178 points. Westminster won the state title finishing with 46 points to nip Lovett, who tallied 48.
North Hall took sixth with 184 points and East Jackson came in ninth with 313 points to finish in the top 10.
Jackson County finished 12th with 371 points and Union County was 13th with 389 points.
Sue Morales of East Jackson was the top area runner taking third in a time of 18:55.56 and Frankie Muldoon of Dawson County finished in a time of 19:46.77 to take sixth.
In Class AAAAA boys, Johnson's Issac Hernandez finished third in a race where the top three runners all finish within a 2-second span. Hernandez finished with a time of 16:40.56 while Decatur's Sam Ellis won the title in a time 16:38.61.Hernadez was the only area runner to finish in the top 10.
Flowery Branch Branch was the only area team to finish in the top 10 taking sixth place with 220 points. Clarkston won the team title with 97 points. Johnson finished 13th.
In the Class AAAAA girls, the Lady Falcons took a fourth place finish with 151 points. Woodland (Cartersville) won the title with 81 points. Buford finished 14th and Johnson 19th in the final team standings.
Erika Plummer paced Flowery Branch with a sixth place finish. Sar Davis finished 21st to lead Buford.
It was a tough road for Class AAAA boys teams. St. Pius (51), Marist (72), and Blessed Trinity (85) dominated the event finished 1-2-3 in the team standings.
The three teams also place 10 of the top 15 individual runners.
Jefferson had the highest finish tying for fifth place (197) with North Oconee. The Dragons were paced by Addison Cochran, who finished 18th. Chestatee finished seventh (232) led by Ivan Martin who came in 21st.
White County finished 14th overall.
In the Class AAAA girls, White County finished third but the meet was dominated by Marist, who won the title with just 34 total points as the Lady War Eagles placed all five of their counted runners in the top 13.
The Lady Warriors finished with 124 points, led by Jaelen Alexander, who finished seventh. Chestatee's Lindsey Grater took sixth and they were the only two area runners to finish in the top 10.
Chestatee finished eighth overall (275) points and Jefferson finished 11th (386).
In the Class AAAAAA boys, Gainesville finished 10th and Habersham Central 19th. Alexander Sosa was the top finisher for the Red Elephants with a 23rd place showing. Daniel Ruiz took 26th for Gainesville.
In the Class AAAAAA girls, no area teams finished in the top 10, though Winder-Barrow's Micah Weathers took fourth in the individual race. The Lady Bulldoggs finished 12th overall.
