CLEVELAND, Ga. — North Hall swept the Region 8-4A boys and girls cross country titles on Tuesday at the Unicoi State Park course.
The top four teams, and the top six individual finishers, regardless of whether they are a member of a qualifying team, all moved on to the State Championship meet set for Nov. 4 & 5 in Carrollton.
The North Hall boys placed three in the top seven to hold off rival Chestatee, who had two in the top seven, for low 54 points to the War Eagles’ 65. East Forsyth took third with 69 points and Cherokee Bluff was fourth with 89.
In the girls team race, the Lady Trojans dominated the field placing all five scoring runners in the top six to finish with a miniscule 17 points. North Oconee was a distant second with 72 and Chestatee third with 75. Bluff took fourth with 79 points.
In the girls individual race, North Hall's Clodagh O'Bryant also blistered the field with a winning time of 19:10.9, beating teammate Abi Moore by more than 40 seconds for the individual title. Moore finished in 19:50.00 to hold off teammate Harleigh Smith, who finished third with a 20:06.20 time.
Adison Myers of Cherokee Bluff was the only non-North Hall runner to crack the top five, taking fourth. Lady Trojans runners Jessie Dubnik and Makayla Jones took fifth and sixth, respectively.
In the boys individual race, East Forsyth’s Alex Arrambide also dominated the field cruising to the victory in a 15:56.10 time. That was nearly 38 seconds better than Chestatee’s Aaron Retana, who finished second in 16:34.71. North Hall’s Bryant Young was third, William Knight of East Forsyth fourth, Javier Rebollar of Chestatee was fifth, and North Hall’s Jaycob Wagner was sixth.
Also at Unicoi on Tuesday, Wesleyan swept both of the Region 7-3A boys and girls cross country titles.
White County’s Nealeigh Broadwell ran away with the girls individual race, beating the entire field by nearly half a minute.
In the 7-3A boys meet, Wesleyan tallied 45 points to hold off Pickens (54), Dawson County (62) and Lumpkin County (65) to win the title. But Noah Jones of Pickens and Lumpkin County’s Ben Sherrill put on one of the best finishes in the state.
Jones nipped Sherrill in a dead-sprint finish breaking the tape in 16:43.10 time to Sherrill’s 16:43.30. Wood Moore of Wesleyan took third and Wyatt Windham of Lumpkin County was fourth.
In the 7-3A girls meet, Wesleyan finished with 40 points to beat Dawson County, who took second with 56 points. Pickens was third with 60 and White County fourth with 81.
The Lady Warriors’ Broadwell dominated the race from virtually start-to-finish finishing with a 20:00.70 time. Kaela Kearney of Pickens was a distant second coming in with a time of 20:27.50.
