Some of the action at Tuesday’s meet. (Photos by Mark Brock)
Yordanos Ephram clocked the second fastest time of the season in DeKalb County cross country meets this season with a 17:16.81 to win the opening race at the Druid Hills Middle School course on Tuesday.
Ephram’s time was just 3.09 seconds off the mark set by Sage Walker of Druid Hills two weeks earlier at Druid Hills. Ephram and teammate Abedelemijid Kerebo, who ran the ninth fastest time of the season of 17:57.51, finished one-two to aid Tucker’s second place finish behind Clarkston (26-53).
Clarkston had five of the next six runners to cross the finish line led by Dejene Abatie (19:32.87) in third followed by Mengesha Alebachew (19:37.02), Jackson Mpunezi (19:39.82) and Abdel Mahamat (19:43.34) in fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively.
Dunwoody’s Parks Rhletter (20:00.71) and Daniel Hernandez (20:21.81) Clarkston’s Pacifique Muhire (20:21.57) as the next three to finish with Clarkston’s Henok Gugssa (20:31.82) rounding out the Top 10.
Chamblee finished third in the team standings with 75 points followed by Dunwoody with 80 and Lakeside 146. Chamblee’s Eli Scruggs finished 14th overall to lead a group of five consecutive Bulldogs to cross the line.
The opening girls’ race went to the Chamblee Lady Bulldogs who had the first 12 runners to cross the line led by overall winner Talley Pendleton (23:46.73) who got into the Top 10 Individual Times on the girls’ side for 2021.
Chamblee finished with a perfect score of 15 followed by Dunwoody with 59 and Lakeside 66.
Elisha Mensah (23:58.63), Paige Pendelton (24:28.21), Olivia Tabron (25:29.49), Shrita Reddy (25:46.19), Tabitha McLeod-Jones (26:13.75), Jamie King (26:14.55), Anna Zhai (26:17.17), Lydia Traynelis (26:17.53) and Paige Parker (26:17.75) followed in order behind Talley Pendleton to close out the Top 10.
Dunwoody’s Casey Willard (26:55.98) finished 13th overall to be the first non-Chamblee runner to cross the finish line.
Second Varsity Race
Martin Luther King Jr.’s Morgan Hughes (25:47.61) and Demetria Lind (26:05.98) had a one-two finish in the girls’ second race of the day won by Southwest DeKalb.
The Lady Panthers of Southwest DeKalb were the only full team to score in the meet and finished with 15 points led by five runners in the Top 10. Kaila Wimes (31:22.20) led the way in sixth place overall.
Galloway (15) joined the DeKalb runners in the second boys’ varsity race of the day and outran Redan (56), Lithonia (69) and Cedar Grove (110) to win the race. Galloway’s Simon Brees was the overall winner in 19:24.01.
Second place Redan had two runners in the Top 10 in seventh place finisher Lodrick Scott (21:10.38) and eight place finisher Jayden Smart (21:40.65).
Martin Luther King’s Kordell Hamilton (21:44.62) was ninth and rounding out the Top 10 was Lithonia’s Chase Champion (21:48.13).
Junior Varsity
Dunwoody swept the junior varsity races on Tuesday with the Lady Wildcats dominating the Top 10 to win 32-47 over Chamblee.
Martin Luther King Jr. finished third with 70 points followed by Redan with 98 and Stephenson with 123.
Dunwoody’s Colleen Murphy took second place with a time of 15:57.27 with five other teams taking fifth through 10th. Lucy Neumann (17:02.87) led the string of Lady Wildcats in sixth followed in order by Emma Parker (17:03.28), Charlotte Kuhn (17:04.44), Ronnie Amrani (17:04.58) and Jenna McJunkin (17:07.63).
Redan’s Aniya Leigertwood took the winner’s circle crown in 14:24.79 to pace the racers. Chamblee picked up third place as Brooke Robinson (16:43.98) and fifth by Olivia Bell (16:52.25).
Martin Luther King’s Dymond Thompson (16:45.19) cruised into a fourth place finish to lead the Lady Lions.
Six Dunwoody guys grabbed Top 10 finishes in leading the Wildcats (22) over Chamblee (61), Clarkston (67) and Martin Luther Kng Jr. (91).
Ethan Archibald (12:01.33) and Mark Westrick (12:16.47) put up the top boys’ junior varsity times of the season to lead Dunwoody in the win. Dunwoody’s Addison Hixon (12:47.01) and Wade Parkes (12:48.15) came across in fifth and sixth for the Wildcats as they close in on the win.
Ryan Altera (13:00.76) crossed the line in eighth to wrap up the win for Dunwoody while teammate Richard Remigailo (13:21.17) finishes 10th overall.
Clarkston’s Jean Paul Irasubiza (12:44.51) was third, King’s Kameron Sutton (12:46.94) was fourth, Chamblee’s Josh Girffith (12:59.08) was seventh and Clarkston’s Claude Tusiime (13:19.95) was ninth to round out the Top 10.
The first six runners that crossed the finish line all made the Top 10 times of the season for the junior varsity.
The next meet is Tuesday, September 28 at Arabia Mountain followed on Thursday, September 30 by the Junior Varsity County Championships at Druid Hills Middle School. The Varsity County Championships are set for Tuesday, October 5. First races are set for 5:15 pm.
See link below for full results from Tuesday’s races: