Dunwoody’s Ethan Archibald (left) and Claire Shelton (right) swept the season opening varsity races this week. (Photo by Mark Brock)
Two varsity races and one junior varsity race kicked off the 2021 cross country season for DeKalb County at Druid Hills Middle School trail on a muggy Tuesday afternoon.
The opening race was won by the Dunwoody Lady Wildcats (girls) and Clarkston Angoras (boys) to jump start the season with the first meet.
The Lady Wildcats swept the first 10 places of the meet led by defending Class 7-7A champion Claire Shelton with a time of 21:25.33. She was followed in the Top 5 by Lucy Neumann (22:44.30), Emma Parker (23:24.94), Maggie Coxen (23:57.37) and Ronni Amrani, (24:17.06)
Clarkston’s Milak Colette broke the Dunwoody run taking 11th in 26.36.19. Lakeside which finished second with 50 points was led by Maggie Welp’s 14th place finish in 26:56.86. Stephenson was the only program with a team score picking up 85 points led by Ty’Kira Garrett in 34:17.36.
The boys’ opening race won by Clarkston with 28 points as the Angoras ran in a tight pack with five runners in the Top 10 finishers led by Abenezer Woellore who finished third overall in 18:37.47. Other Top 10 Clarkston finishers in order were Dejene Abatie (19:17.50, 4th), Jackson Mupenzi (19:21.48, 5th), Mengesha Alebachew (20:08.55, 7th) and Abdel Mahamat (20:13.13, 9th).
Lakeside and Dunwoody both finished with 48 points with Lakeside breaking the tie for second as the Vikings’ sixth runner finished before the Wildcats sixth finisher.
Lakeside had three runners in the Top 10 in runner-up Adam Grisch (18:28.54), Evan Leahy (19:29.96, 6th) and Kyle Marsh (20:36.41, 10th). Matthew Burn was 13th (20:43.75) and Jack Erens (21:42.22) was 17th to round out the Vikings’ Top 5. Grant Webb was 18th (21:50.36) was the tiebreaker finished just ahead of Dunwoody’s Richard Remigailo (21:55.86, 19th).
Dunwoody took home the individual title to make a clean sweep in the opening race as Ethan Archibald (17:50.52) cruised to a 38 second win. Wade Parkes was the only other Top 10 finisher for the Wildcats as he crossed in eighth (20:09.59).
Stephenson was fourth in the team scores with 120 led by Dwayne McKinney in 43rd (25:03.98).
Second Varsity Race
The second girls race had no team results with Druid Hills finished strong though not timed officially in the race. Martin Luther King’s Demetria Line (28:09.52) won the official timed race followed by teammate Morgan Hughes (28:43.03).
Though the time was unofficial Druid Hills’ Harley Martz cross the line first with the best time of the at 20:45.
In the boys’ second race the official team results were Tucker in first (18) followed by Towers (53) and Lithonia 66.
Tucker was led by Yordanos Ephram with a time of 17:46.77 to best Dunwoody’s Archibald by just under four seconds on the day. Ephram’s Tiger teammate Abedelemejid Kerebo was second in 18:27.35. The Tigers had seven runners finish in the Top 10 of the official timing of the even including Braxton Broady (23:09.20, 6th), Jonah Thomas (24:13.15, 7th), Yerufael Abate (24:53.69, 8th) and Caleb Dunlap (26:15.68, 10th).
Other Top 10 finishers include Towers’ Emmanuel Clement (20:14.44, 3rd), Martin Luther King’s Maurice Smith (22:59.74, 5th) and Lithonia’s Chase Champion (24:54.51, 9th).
Druid Hills had four runners finish in under 20 minutes including the best of the day (17.23) by Sage Walker. Isaac Kiefer followed in 18:50 along with Owen Blount (19.13) and Ethan Berryman (19.14).
Junior Varsity Race
The two-mile junior varsity had Lakeside (girls) and Clarkston (boys) coming out on top in the team standings.
Lakeside finished with a perfect score of 15 to be the only girls team to score out of five teams with entries in the event.
Martin Luther King’s India Thorpe won the individual title with a very good time of 16:15.25. Lakeside took the next four places in the following order of Emma Hamilton (18:42.48, 2nd), Leah Ricks-James (19:20.68, 3rd), Hope Tubesing (19:40.02, 4th) and Charlotte Richards (20:01.67, 5th).
Martin Luther King’s Dymond Thompson was the only other Top 10 finisher as her time of 21:43.77 was good for sixth.
Lakeside’s Aidan Vrazel won the JV individual boys’ title with a time of 12:55.08 but it was not enough for Lakeside (43) to overtake Clarkston (20) for the title.
The Angoras had seven runners place in the Top 10 led by runner-up Jean Paul Irasubiza (13:22.89). He was followed in over by Pacifique Muhire (13:23.10) and Claude Tusiime (13:44.43).
Ali Al-Musway (15:22.18, 5th) led the next group of Angoras followed in order by Akram Musa (15:23.32, 7th), Fanuel Weldemichael (15:24.30, 8th) and Daniale Seyfu (15:26.09, 9th).
Martin Luther King’s Kameron Sutton (14.33.81) came in 5th and Lakeside’s Reese Vaughn (15:26.20) came across in 10th.
See link below for complete results: