Druid Hills senior Sage Walker became just the second Red Devil to win an individual state title with his 2021 Class 4A victory in 16:34.63. (Photo by Mark Brock)
Sage Walker’s Class 4A individual state title led the way for the DeKalb contingents at their respective cross-country state meets as five teams ran to Top 10 finishes to wrap up the 2021 season.
Druid Hills opened the state meet on Friday at Carrollton High School with a pair of Top 10 team finishes. The Red Devils opened up racing to a seventh-place finish in boys Class 4A race with 184 points in the event won by a strong performance by Chestatee. Druid Hills finished ninth a year ago.
Walker, the county and Region 4-6A champion, cruised along in the front pack for over half the race before turning it on to open a margin of almost 100 meters as he raced across the finish line for the gold medal in a time of 16:34.63. Walker became just the second Red Devil to claim a state title joining Nabil Hamid (2008, Class 3A) and the first DeKalb boys’ runner to claim a title since Lakeside’s Davis Stockwell (Class 6A) in 2014.
Druid Hills had two other runners finish in the Top 30 in Owen Blount (18:18.94, 27th) and Ethan Berryman (18:22.20, 29th). The rest of the team included Isaac Kiefer (18:52.05, 53rd), Trey Crawford (19:46.22, 79th), Jack Cole (19:54.76, 86th) and David-James Landis (20:00.18, 92nd).
The Red Devils seventh place finish was the school’s third consecutive and 25th overall Top 10 finish at the state meet.
Senior Katie Blount finished eighth in the Class 4A girls’ race to lead the Lady Red Devils to a second consecutive sixth place finish in the state meet. (Photo by Mark Brock)
The Druid Hills ladies matched their sixth-place finish of 2020 scoring 176 points in a race Marist almost scored a perfect mark with 17 to win the state title.
Senior Katie Blount led the way running a time of 20:37.37 knocking off almost three minutes of her 2020 state meet run to finish eighth overall, an improvement of 24 spots from a year ago. Sophomore Harley Martz finished 14th in 21:15.09 and senior Sophie Shepherd was 30th in 22:39.84.
Other runners include senior Coco Cutts (23:46.46) who improved 45 spots to 55th this season, sophomore Mary Jane Walker (24:34.53, 72nd), Ben Lipscomb (24:44.84, 76th) and senior Charlotte Walker (25:18.87, 88th).
CLASS 5A
Chamblee competed well in the Class 5A state meet with a 10th place finish by the boys’ team and 11th by the girls led by Top 20 finishes from sophomore Matthew Coates (17:14.98, 18th) and senior Olivia Tabron (20:07.50, 11th).
William Elder gave the Bulldogs two Top 25 finishers as he ran 21st (17:21.90). The other scoring members of the team included Seniors Michael Haag (18:33.11, 95th) and Ashvij Hosdurg (18:42.51, 100th) and junior Daniel Mata (18:49.29, 108th). Sophomores Micah Burton (19:18.06, 140th) and Josh Griffith (20:07.30, 171st) also ran for Chamblee.
It was the 19th Top 10 finish in school history for the Bulldogs who finished ninth in 2019.
The ladies squad had scorers freshman Talley Pendleton (22:12.65, 63rd), sophomore Elisha Mensah (22:49.82, 85th), freshman Paige Pendleton (23:00.81, 93rd) and junior Reagan Kuehne (23:28.01, 115th). Other competitors for Chamblee were junior Grace Nichols (23:29.69, 118th) and sophomore Hannah Stewart (23:42.27, 130th).
It was also the girls’ third consecutive Top 10 finish at state and 15th overall.
CLASS 6A
The Lakeside Lady Vikings picked up their second consecutive fourth place finish and 24th Top 10 finish as they ran to 199 points in the Class 6A state meet.
All seven runners for Lakeside finished in the Top 70 led by juniors Haley Davis (20:47.67, 23rd) and Ellie Skelton (20:44.62, 27th). Other runners to score for Lakeside included junior Tristan Linscott (21;39.61, 42nd), sophomore Savannah Spires (21:57.10, 54th) and senior Nancy Puente (22:06.04, 60th). Also competing for Lakeside were seniors Kate Van Horn (22:19.81, 67th) and Abigail McHoul (22:24.96, 70th).
The Vikings finished 19th overall in the boys’ standings led by senior Adam Grisch (17:46.62) in 57th.
Tucker was 27th in the boys’ team standings led by Yordanos Ephram (17:15.55) who came across 27th overall.
CLASS 7A
The Dunwoody Lad Wildcats picked up their 14th Top 10 finish as a program improving nine spots from an 18th place finish in 2020 to ninth this year in the Class 7A meet.
Sophomore Claire Shelton finished 16th overall with a time of 20:06.00 to lead the way for Dunwoody. Seniors Lucy Neuman (20:44.92, 34th) and Kate Bacon (21:09.69, 48th) finished in the Top 50. Also scoring for Dunwoody were freshman Maggie Coxen (21:31.56, 63rd) and sophomore Ronnie Amrani (21:41.78, 71st). Other competitors included junior Emma Parker (22:44.96, 126th) and freshman Jenna McJunkin (23:21.65, 148th).
The Wildcats finished 20th as a team led by senior Ethan Archibald in 47th with a time of 17:34.85.