Clarkston’s Suheib Mohamed repeated as a region champ by taking the 5-5A gold. (Photo by Mark Brock)
Nine DeKalb County School District (DCSD) boys’ teams and 10 girls’ teams came out of area and region competition to qualify for Saturday’s GHSA Cross Country State Championships to be held in Carrollton.
Five region team champions and five individual champions are included in the group heading to state.
Region 5-5A consists of all DCSD teams with the two-time defending Class 5A state champions Clarkston Angoras adding a third consecutive region title to the trophy case with a perfect score of 15 on the Druid Hills Middle School Course.
Clarkston senior Suheib Mohamed claimed his second consecutive individual region championship leading a sweep of the top seven for Clarkston. Mohamed ran a 16:58.70 to win the gold.
Senior Bineyam Tumbo, who finished second to Mohamed at the DCSD County Championships, took the silver in 17:03.90 and was followed by sophomore Thomas Weldemichal (17:16.00 who snagged the bronze medal.
Senior Bosco Hakuzimana (17.16.90) was just behind Weldemichal in fourth and ahead of sophomore Rukundo Uwimana (17:18.80) in fifth. Sophomore Ngabo Daniel (17:19.60) was sixth and junior Abdi Nasir Yahye (17:20.30) rounded out the first seven places sweep for Clarkston.
Chamblee, the team runner-up with 50 points, had the final three Top 10 finishers in sophomore Bennett Solomon (17:43.20) in eighth, junior James Burgett (18:08.10) in ninth and junior Rasheed Cobb (18:14.80) in 10th.
Arabia Mountain finished third with 85 points to qualify for the Class 5A state meet set for 12:30 pm on Saturday, November 5 at Carrollton High School
Chamblee junior Beining Xiao was the gold medalist in the Class 5-5A girls’ championship. (Photo by Mark Brock)
Chamblee picked up the 5-5A girls’ team trophy with a 21 points victory (29-50) over Southwest DeKalb led by a 1-2 finish by juniors Beining Xiao (19:37.80) and Paris Williams (20:56.80).
The Lady Bulldogs had two more Top 10 runners in junior Karina Delgadillo (21:59.80) in fifth and sophomore Madeline Miller (23:08.40) in 10th.
Southwest DeKalb sophomore Lanee Edwards (21:18.00) took the bronze medal while sophomore Jamarria Williams (22:46.90) crossed in seventh.
Clarkston qualified for state for the second consecutive season by taking third overall (65) with three runners in the Top 10. Senior Azza Adam was sixth (22:46.90) while sophomore Zyikeirra Robinson was eighth (22:52.20) and senior Leonie Parkinson was ninth (23:07.80).
Miller Grove sophomore Emoni Coleman (21:41.80) was fourth overall to help the Lady Wolverines qualify for state with a fourth place finish (84).
Tucker senior Ryan Wurapa captured the gold medal at the Region 4-6A Cross Country Championships. (Photo by Mark Brock)
Region 4-6A
The Tucker Tigers and Stephenson Lady Jaguars gave DCSD a sweep of the Region 4-6A team titles at Druid Hills Middle School.
The Tigers scored a perfect score of 15 as they matched Clarkston’s Region 5-5A feat with a sweep of the top seven places. Senior Ryan Wurapa (17:40.20) and sophomore Abdilnur Tiroro (17:42.87) crossed first with Wurapa taking the gold as both runners broke the 18-minute mark.
Sophomore Miles Smith (18:11.40) grabbed the bronze while fellow sophomore Ian Nuhfer (18:20.62) was fourth. Junior Bereket Shiberu (19:02.44) was fifth overall while senior teammates Fanuel Abiy (19:25.72) crossed the finish line in sixth and Bekalu Gebrehana (19:31.08) was seventh.
Martin Luther King Jr. (87) qualified for state with a third place team finish led by sophomore Demetrius Carson (19:46.89) who got inside the Top 10 at ninth. Ken’darius Goodrum (20:49.15) lead Stephenson (115) to a state qualifying fourth in the team standings as he was 16th overall.
The Lady Jaguars put five runners in the Top 15 of the girls’ race, including three in the Top 10, to capture the region title 31-41 over Forest Park.
Sophomore Diamond Tillman (24:58.10) was fourth while sophomore Deanna Rawling (25:20.58) was sixth and freshman Angelina Jackson (25:56.05) was eighth.
Tucker also qualified for state with a third place finish in the girls’ standings. Senior Lesly Umba (25:37.09) led the way with her seventh place finish and Nevaeh Whitsell (26:46.90) was 10th.
Druid Hills senior Ermias Tewolde picked up the Region 4-4A boy’s gold medal to lead his team into the state meet this weekend. (Photo by Mark Brock)
Region 4-4A
Both the Druid Hills teams qualified for state out of Region 4-4A as the boys’ captured the region championship and the girls’ were runners-up at the Druid Hills Middle School Course.
The Red Devils edged out Woodward Academy 31-35 to take the title as four runners finished in the top six finishers. Senior Ermias Tewolde led the way as he ran a fast time of 16:33.10 to capture the gold medal four seconds ahead of Woodward’s Brennan Silliman.
Junior Carter Rathur picked up a bronze medal for Druid Hills with a time of 17:33.50 while junior Ian Shunk (17:49.20) was fifth and freshman Bati Hulufe (18:04.50) was sixth. Freshman Josh Rollins closed out the title for Druid Hills with his 16th place finish in 19:03.10.
The Lady Devils came up short against Woodward (swept top 6 spots) 15-48 despite putting three runners in the Top 10. Junior Lydia Medford (22:09.90) was seventh, senior Rachel Juieng (22:12.00) was eighth and freshman Genevieve Ferrara (22:24.40) in 10th.
Last year’s Class 5A champ Samantha Cameron of Dunwoody won the Region 7-6A individual gold last week.
Region 7-6A
The two-time Class 5A defending state champions Dunwoody Lady Wildcats moved up to Class 6A this year and fell just short of a region title in third to qualify for the state meet.
Dunwoody with 84 points was just six behind region champ Alpharetta (78) and three behind runner-up Johns Creek (81). Junior Samantha Cameron, the Class 5A individual champ last year, took the individual gold for Dunwoody with a time of 20:12.25.
The Wildcats were not as fortunate in the boys’ competition finishing eighth and failing to qualify for state. Max Mowrer ran a time of 17:33.94 to finish 10th in the individual results.
Area 5-7A
Lakeside qualified both of its teams for the Class 7A state meet on Friday at Carrollton.
Class 7A went to Area Meets this season with the first six teams qualifying for state and the Vikings finished sixth with 166 points behind champion Brookwood’s 45.
Junior Jake Tubesing was the Vikings top finisher with a time of 17:18.70 to cross the finish line at 27th.
The Lady Vikings compiled a 125 point total for fifth behind champion Brookwood’s 42. Senior Morgan Mihalis finished fifth overall with a time of 19:14.36 to lead Lakeside.
Region 5-3A
The Stone Mountain Pirates and Cedar Grove Lady Saints both finished fourth in the team standings to qualify for the state meet on Saturday.
Mohamed Dirie (17:59.01) and Yusuf Omar (17:59.80) both came across in under 18 minutes for the Pirates to finish 14th and 15th, respectively. Stone Mountain was fourth overall with 106 points behind champion Westminter’s 28.
Cedar Grove scored 120 points to take fourth in the girls’ championship which was won by Westminster with 24. Alexia Wilson (24:08.47) was 22nd to lead Cedar Grove.
State Cross Country Schedule
Carrollton Course
Carrollton High School
Friday, November 4
9:00 am 1A Private boys
9:45 am 1A Private girls
10:30 am 7A boys
11:15 am 7A girls
12:00 noon 2A boys
12:45pm 2A girls
Saturday, November 5
8:00 am 3A boys
8:45 am 3A girls
9:30 am 4A boys
10:15 am 4A girls
11:00 am 6A boys
11:45 am 6A girls
12:30 pm 5A boys
1:15 pm 5A girls
2:00 pm 1A Public boys
2:45 pm 1A Public girls
Bold is scheduled times for DCSD teams.