The Druid Hills boys cross country team ended a 56-year drought with a win in the 2021 DCSD County Cross Country Championships this week. (Photo by Mark Brock)
A 56-yard drought came to an end for the Druid Hills boys’ cross country team on Tuesday night as the Red Devils captured their first DeKalb County Varsity Cross Country Championship since 1965.
Sage Walker led the way running a DeKalb season’s best of 16:46.85 to capture the boys’ individual title to set the tone for the Red Devils place five runners in the Top 10 to score 30 points. Walker is the first Red Devil since Ermais Tewolde (17:13) in 2014 to win the individual boys’ gold medal.
Isaac Kiefer grabbed a Top 5 finish for Druid Hills with his time of 17:08.95, the fourth best time in DeKalb this season. Will Goldsmith (17:36.40) was sixth with Red Devils teammates Lemi Gemed (17:54.52) in ninth and Owen Blount (18:04.25) in 10th to round out the scoring for Druid Hills.
Chamblee was second in the team standings with 64 points followed by Lakeside (90) in third. The Bulldogs were led by William Elder (17:00.23) who finished third with the third best time run in the county meets this season. Teammate Matthew Coates added a Top 5 finish by taking fifth with a time of 17:29.43 to give the Bulldogs two runners in the Top 10.
Defending individual boys’ champion Yordanos Ephram raced the second fastest time in DeKalb this fall as he clocked a 16:51.18 to finish second. Tucker teammate Abedelemejid Kerebo came in seventh with a time of 17:43.59. Tucker finished sixth overall in the team standings with 115 points.
Druid Hills Sage Walker (middle photo) clocked a DeKalb County season’s best of 16:46.85 to win the individual boys’ gold medal. (Photos by Mark Brock)
Dunwoody finished fifth overall with 111 points led by Ethan Archibald’s (17:52.24) eighth place finish in the individual race.
Two-time defending champion Clarkston fell to fourth this year with its top finisher, Mengesha Alebachew (18:28.49) coming in 13th overall.
Third place Lakeside was led by Kyle Marsh (18:29.23) who finished 14th overall.
This is the first year since 1994 a team other than Lakeside or Clarkston has won the boys’ team championship except the 1995 tie between Lakeside and Stone Mountain. Druid Hills had finished in second five times in that stretch including the 2019 race as runner-up to Clarkston.
Druid Hills now has three boys’ titles having won in 1962, 1965 and now in 2021.
See link below for the full 2021 County Championship results: