Lakeside’s Mikias Mekonen on the way to victory. (Photo by Mark Brock)
The first DeKalb County cross country meet was held Tuesday with the Lakeside Vikings and Lady Vikings getting season opening wins over their Clarkston opponents at Druid Hills Middle School.
Lakeside won the girls’ race by sweeping the top seven spots in the first varsity race of the day for a 15-74 win over the Clarkston Lady Angoras. Junior Emma Hanson captured the individual title with a time of 22:46.00.
The rest of the Top 5 scorers in order for Lakeside included sophomore Sydney DeWoody (22:58.50), junior Abbie Hunter (23:22.00), eighth graders Abigail McHail (23:41.10) and Kate Van Horn (23:45.50).
Tucker’s Luma Younis, a sophomore, was the only non-Lakeside runner in the Top 10 as she slipped in at No. 9 with a time of 25:54.70. Younis’ finish helped Tucker finish fifth with 124 points.
Second place Clarkston’s top finisher was junior Angel Wilson with a time 28:23.00 to come in 17th overall. Dunwoody came in fourth in the team standings with 85 points led by sophomore Marina Von Behren who was 15th in 27:19.90.
Cross Keys was fourth in the girls’ standings with 87 points led by senior Joyce Korir with a time of 28:54.50 to finish 22nd overall.
Lakeside’s Emma Hanson won the first girls’ varsity race in 2017. (Photo by Mark Brock)
The Vikings put six runners in the Top 10 led by sophomore Mikias Mekonen who was the only runner in the meet to run under 18 minutes with his time of 17:56.30 to take medalist honors.
Juniors Jay Clinton (18:26.30) and William Nelson (18:40.10) were third and fourth, respectively, to aid the Vikings in their 24-42 victory over Clarkston in the boys’ opener.
Clarkston junior Rukundo Uwimana finished second overall with a time of 18:07.70 to pace the Angoras with senior Enoch Kabwende (18:40.10) in fifth and junior Ngabo Daniel (19:14.30) in sixth.
Lakeside sophomore Alex Bachman (19:27.20) was seventh while junior teammate Oliver Hewett (19:34.90) and senior Daniel Martinez (19:36.20) was 10th to wrap up the Vikings first place finish.
Tucker junior Abdilnur Tiroro (19:29.70) was eight over all to lead the third place Tigers (78). Dunwoody finished with 100 points in the race led by senior Max Marion (20:20.40) at 17th.
Druid Hills Carter Rathur rounds the corner and heads to the finish line to win the second boys’ varsity race on Tuesday. (Photo by Mark Brock)
Second Varsity Race
Druid Hills swept the titles in the second DCSD varsity race of the day at Druid Hills Middle on Tuesday.
The Lady Red Devils had the only full team in the contest, but swept the Top 15 finishes led by ninth grader Reese Rathur with a time of 23:47.70.
The next four Druid Hills runners to score points were sophomore Genevieve Ferrara (24:08.60), seniors Lisa Medford (24:14.60), Lydia Medford (24:25.70) and Emily Greipsson (26:11.00).
Columbia senior Franol Hulufe (31:38.40) was 14th and the first non-Druid Hills runner to cross the line. She was followed by Cedar Grove senior Zenera Foster (32:13.60).
In the boys’ race, Druid Hills had five of the top six runners to outrun Martin Luther King Jr. 16-50 for the win. Arabia Mountain was third (106) followed by McNair (112), Lithonia (138) and Cedar Grove (143).
Druid Hills junior Carter Rathur took top honors in the race with his time of 19:13.90 to lead a group of four consecutive Red Devils to cross the finish line. Junior Ian Shunk (19:26.70) was second with sophomore Senai Ghezai (19:57.70) in third and senior Ermias Genet (20:27.80) in fourth.
Sophomore Thomas Weingardner (20:51.20) finished out the scoring for Druid Hills with his sixth place finish.
Druid Hills’ Reese Rathur sprints to the finish line to win the second girls’ varsity race. (Photo by Mark Brock)
Martin Luther King junior Demetrius Carson (20:47.70) climbed into the Top 5 to lead the Lions to the second place finish in the team standings. Sophomore Christian Abraham (22:11.60) was ninth and junior Deonne Wragg (22:24.50) was 10th to aid the Lions’ cause.
Cedar Grove freshman Omari Walker (22:10.70) finished eighth overall to lead the Saints.
Participating teams will run the first meet at Arabia Mountain on Tuesday, Aug. 30 beginning at 5:1
JV Results
Stephenson picks up junior varsity race victories on Tuesday at the Druid Hills Middle School cross country course.
The Lady Jaguars was the only full contingent of girls running in the junior varsity race and swept the top eight spots.
Junior Deanna Rawling was the top finisher with her time of 17:09.10. Towers sophomore Jakeria Daniels was the first non-Stephenson runner to cross in 30:39.90 to finish ninth while Druid Hills freshman Meguan Fiquera was 10th in 31:55.11.
The Jaguars captured five of the Top 10 finishes in the boys’ race to out-point Martin Luther King Jr. 20-41 in the race. Stephenson junior Donald Griffin clocked a nice 13:38.00 to finish second while seniors Jechorvion Foster followed in 14:56.20 for fourth and Kevin Nwogu was fifth with a time of 15:11.80.
Sophomore Zar Anderson-Brown crossed the finish line first with a tidy 12:53.80 to lead Martin Luther King Jr. Dunwoody’s Jack Wichman, an eighth grader, finished third (13:59.80) along with eighth grade teammate Alan Kirshenbaum coming in ninth (16:14.40).
Stone Mountain sophomore Kun Aung was sixth overall in 15:32.40 and Towers sophomore Riyu Bon Durant was eighth in 16:11.40.
See links below to the full results from the August 22 meets at Druid Hills Middle School.