CARROLLTON — North Hall's Caylee Wagner dominated the field in running away with the Class 3A girls state title by nearly 1 1/2-minutes on Friday at the state course while Jefferson's Katherine Law captured the Class 4A title in perhaps the most thrilling race of the day.
Law beat Ruby Little of Marist in a mad sprint to the line, finishing with a 19:24.08 time to Little's 19:27.42.
Wagner, meanwhile, finished in a time of 19:08.60, which was the second-lowest time posted among all girls covering three state meets on Friday. She outdistanced Westminster's Janie Cooper, who clocked in at 20:33.23 for the Lady Wildcats. Adison Myers of Cherokee Bluff was thid with a 20:39.09 finish.
Her finish, and teammate Abi Moore's fifth-place showing, helped the Lady Trojans finish third overall with 72 points. Westminster claimed the 3A team title with 50 points.
White County took fourth with 125 points and Cherokee Bluff was fifth with 136 giving Region 7-3A three of the top five teams. East Jackson out of Region 8-3A finished 11th with 299 points.
The Dawson County boys finished second in the Class 3A state cross country meet on Friday.
The Tigers finished the course with 97 points as their top three runners all finished in the top 18, led by Luke Hamby, who placed 13th. But Westminster took the team title with 54 points as the Wildcats had three of the top 10 individual finishers.
Dawson County led three Region 7-3A teams into the top seven as Cherokee Bluff took fourth with 146 points and North Hall placed seventh with 240 points. East Jackson out of Region 8-3A finished eighth with 258 points. West Hall's Stephen finished 8th.
In the 4A girls meet, Jefferson placed four runners in the top 13 but it still wasn't enough to overcome Marist, which had all five scorers finish in the top 12. Marist won the team title with 30 points while the Lady Dragons finished second with 62. Flowery Branch took fifth with 129 points, paced by a fifth-place finish from Bella Brick.
