Freshman Ellie Skelton led the Lakeside Lady Vikings to a second consecutive DeKalb County Cross Country Championship in a down to the wire 33-37 win over the Dunwoody Lady Wildcats on Tuesday at the Druid Hills Middle School course.
Druid Hills (59) was third followed in order by Chamblee (125), Clarkston (129), Martin Luther King Jr. (155), Southwest DeKalb (207), Arabia Mountain (234), Towers (248) and Tucker (254).
Skelton ran a Druid Hills’ course season’s best time of 20:45.00 to win by 5.70 seconds over Druid Hills sophomore Sophia Shepherd (20:50.70) before Dunwoody put runners across the finish line in senior Anna Mothner (21:02.80) and sophomore Kate Bacon (21:03.20).
Lakeside took fifth and sixth led by another freshman in Haley Davis (21:16.40) who was followed by sophomore Abigail McHoul (21:36.80).
Druid Hills senior Genevieve Ferrara (21:38.60) crossed in seventh just before fellow senior from Lakeside Sydney DeWoody (21:42.80) in eighth, Lakeside’s fourth runner in the Top 10.
Dunwoody put the pressure on the Vikings by taking the next four spots led by junior Emma Tessler (21:55.30) in ninth and sophomore Lucy Neumann (22:31.60) in tenth. The next two Wildcats were junior Danielle Amrani (22:36.90) in 11th and freshman Emma Parker (22:42.80) in 12th.
Lakeside senior Sontai-blu Boyd (22:44.30) closed out the victory for the Vikings finishing in 13th overall. Druid Hills closed out the Top 15 led by senior Asena Anderson (22:57.00) in 14th and freshman Taleah Casurra (23:02.60) in 15th.
It was the 10th consecutive season for Lakeside and Dunwoody to be in the top two places in the team standings dating back to 2010 with Dunwoody winning seven titles and Lakeside four, including three of the last four (2016, 2018, 2019). Dunwoody won in 2017 after Lakeside broke a four-year reign (2012-2015) by the Wildcats in 2016.
Druid Hills, which finished third, was the last program to finish in the Top 2 in the team standings besides Dunwoody or Lakeside with runner-up finishes in 2009 to Dunwoody and 2008 to Lakeside.
See link below for complete results: