Class 5A Girls Back-to-Back State Champions (2014-15) — Dunwoody Lady Wildcats
Class 5A Individual Girls’ Champion — Dunwoody sophomore Samantha Cameron
The Clarkston Angoras and Dunwoody Lady Wildcats made it a back-to-back sweep of the Class 5A Cross Country State Championships on Saturday in Carrollton as the two teams defended their 2014 state titles on the wet and muddy course following the heavy rains.
The Lady Wildcats picked up their third state title in four season as Bryan Boucher’s squad cruised to a 43 point (70-113) victory over runner-up Creekview.
The sophomore duo of Samantha Cameron and Kelly May Sheehan kicked off the Dunwoody title defense with a 1-2 finish. Cameron, with a time of 20:26.01, became the first girls’ individual champion from DeKalb since her sister Alex Cameron won the title in Dunwoody’s first state championship in 2012.
Sheehan who finished fifth in the 2014 state meet to pace the 2014 state title ran a time of 20:33.65 to take second on the muddy course.
Senior Ansley Heavern moved up four spots from her 2014 12th place finish to eighth with a time of 20:52.27 to give the Lady Wildcats a big advantage with three runners in the Top 10. Senior Ann-Marie Sills (21:59.50) was 28th and junior Alexandra Womble (22:10.95) was 32nd to seal the back-to-back titles for the Lady Wildcats.
Druid Hills finished 25th and Clarkston 27th in the team standings.
Class 5A Boys Back-to-Back State Champions (2014-15) — Clarkston Angoras
Despite being the defending champions and competing well as a team throughout the season, the Angoras were overlooked as contenders for the Class 5A boys’ championship by many leading up to the week of the championships.
“I told the guys with the rain and the mud that it would be about who gutted it out to win,” said Clarkston Head Coach Wesley Etienne. “We won in the cold last year and this year in the rain and mud.”
Only three runners returned from the 2014 state title team and Etienne had to shape the team as the season went along. The team came up just short of winning the DeKalb County Championship, but rebounded with the Region 6-5A title for the third consecutive season in preparation for the state meet.
Junior Suheib Mohamed had been the consistent runner all season for the Angoras and he lead the way in the rain and mud with a fifth place finish in 17:16.43 to kick start the Angoras back-to-back championship run.
Junior Bineyam Tumbo was 14th (17:48.14) and senior Paul Nikobiri was 19th (17:54.94) as the second and third Clarkston runners to finish. Junior Bosco Hakuzimana was 29th (18:06.10) and sophomore Awet Fitwi was 35th (18:12.68) to round out the scoring for the Angoras back-to-back title.
The Angoras had just one Top 10 finish in school history which was a third place finish in Class AAA in 1987 before their current run of three consecutive Top 2 finishes. The Angoras were the state runners-up in 2013 before winning the team’s first ever state title in 2014 and now becoming just the fourth program in DeKalb County to win back-to-back titles in 2015. Druid Hills (1957-58), Lakeside (1972-73) and Gordon (1981-1985) were the other three programs to win at least two consecutive state titles.
Druid Hills junior Ermais Tewolde improved on his sophomore finish of 11th in the state meet up to sixth just behind Clarkston’s Mohamed with a time of 17:36.92 to lead the Red Devils to a 16th place finish in the boys’ standings. Dunwoody finished 19th in the team standings.
Class 6A
The Lakeside Vikings picked up their 34th Top 10 team finish and moved up from 10th to 9th in the team standings from a year ago in the Class 6A boys’ state meet at Carrollton.
Senior Davis Stockwell, the 2014 individual champion, led the way with a 22nd place finish in a time of 17:09.62. It was Lakeside’s 11th consecutive Top 10 finish in state competition.
Tucker finished 27th in the boys’ standings for the second consecutive season.
The Lady Vikings slipped from a 12th place finish in 2014 to 14th this year in the Class 6A girls’ championship. Junior Corrie Smith led the way moving up from a 21st place finish in 2014 to 11th this year with a time of 19:51.44 and junior Morgan Mahalis moved up two spots from 20th in 2014 to 18th on Saturday with a time of 20:07.32.
Tucker’s Lady Tigers were 29th this season after finishing 31st last year.
Class 4A
The Chamblee Lady Bulldogs led by sophomore Beining Xiao picked up their ninth Top 10 finish in school history by taking eighth overall on Saturday in the Class 4A state championships at Carrollton.
Xiao finished ninth overall with a time of 21:45.39, just under 45 seconds behind the individual champ from St. Pius X (Ellie Glenn, 21:00.88) as the Lady Bulldogs picked up their best state finish since a fifth place in Class AAA during the 2006 season.
It was an eight place improvement over 2014’s 16th place finish in the overall team standings. Sophomores Annie Magee was 28th (22:32.61) and Paris Williams was 30th (22:34.26) to aid the Lady Bulldogs climb into the Class 4A Top 10 this season.
The Bulldogs finished 26th overall in the boys’ competition led by Bennett Solomon’s finish at 119 (20:14.00).