2022 DCSD GIRLS CROSS COUNTRY COUNTY CHAMPIONS — DUNWOODY LADY WILDCATS
New champions were crowned on Thursday as the Dunwoody Lady Wildcats and Clarkston Angoras claimed the 2022 DeKalb County Cross Country Championships titles.
Dunwoody won 31-49 over second place Lakeside followed by Chamblee (54), Druid Hills (134), Martin Luther King (148), Southwest DeKalb (163), Clarkston (187) and Tucker (211).
Junior Claire Shelton led the Lady Wildcats to their second title in three years and 10th overall as she captured her second DeKalb title in three years (2020, 2022) as well with a time of 20:33.67 to lead five Dunwoody runners in the Top 11. Shelton led the race from start to finish and finished 19 seconds in front of her closest competitor.
Dunwoody’s Ronnie Amrani (21:33.73) picked up the bronze medal as the Lady Wildcats took two of the first three finishes in the race. Emma Parker (21:59.04) was sixth while Chloe Warren (22:31.31) and Jenna McJunkin (22:47.56) came across in 10th and 11th, respectively to sew up the title.
Dunwoody junior Claire Shelton won her second individual title at the 2022 DCSD Cross Country County Championships. (Photo by Mark Brock)
Lakeside, last year’s champion, came in second as three runners finished in the Top 10 led by Ellie Skelton (21:41.08) in fourth and teammate Tristian Linscott (21:53.72) followed in fifth. Haley Davis (22:10.87) helped seal the runner-up finish for the Lady Vikings with her eighth-place finish.
Chamblee’s third place finished was aided by a silver medal performance by Talley Pendleton (20:51.61) and a seventh place by teammate Reagan Kuehne (22:04.88).
Druid Hills had the ninth-place finisher in Indie Shuler (22:19.92) to lead the way to the fourth overall team finish.
Dunwoody became just the second team to reach double figures in girls’ county championship with its 10th title. Lakeside leads the way with 19. Dunwoody has won nine of its titles in the past 14 seasons, its first of the nine coming in 2009. Dunwoody’s first county title came in 1984. Dunwoody has five runners-up finishes since winning that 2009 championship and eight overall.
Shelton’s second individual title gives Dunwoody nine overall since 1976, the first coming in 1989 by Jeanne Hendrickson. Shelton became the second Lady Wildcat to win two titles. Alex Cameron won four consecutive titles from 2010-2013, the first to do so in DeKalb history.
2022 DCSD BOYS CROSS COUNTRY COUNTY CHAMPIONS — CLARKSTON ANGORAS
BOYS CHAMPIONSHIP
A sixth DeKalb County boys’ cross-country title came to Clarkston on Thursday at the Druid Hills Middle School course as the Angoras ran to a 31-59 victory over the Chamblee Bulldogs.
Dunwoody (73) finished third followed by defending champion Druid Hills (93), Martin Luther King Jr. (145), Lakeside (157), Tucker (179), Lithonia (269), Redan (270), Arabia Mountain (297) and Towers (307).
Sophomore Abenezer Woellore (16:56.63) became the fifth Angora to claim the individual title as he led a group of five runners from Clarkston in the Top 10. Woellore was in a group of three leading the race throughout and pulled away on the final lap to get the win.
Yoseph Beserat (17:35.15) claimed fifth overall and teammate Claude Tusiime (17:42.27) was close behind in sixth for the Angoras. Mengesha Alebachew (17:58.20) was ninth and senior Dejene Abatie (18:00.37) was the only non-sophomore in the group and finished 10th overall.
Chamblee had two runners in the first 10 finishers led by bronze medalist William Elder (17:16.97) and he was joined by Matthew Coates (17:26.94) in fourth. Chamblee’s Carson Rea (18:18.96, 12th) and Ryan McCord (18:30.57, 13th) finished just out of the Top 10.
Clarkston sophomore Abenezer Woellore won the boys’ individual crown at the 2022 DCSD Cross Country County Championships. (Photo by Mark Brock)
Dunwoody was paced by Mark Westrick (17:53.87) who finished eighth overall and Alex Loffredio (18:05.93) came across in 11th.
Defending champion Druid Hills placed two runners in the Top 10 including silver medalist Owen Blount (17:08.25) and seventh place finisher Ethan Berryman ((17:49.05).
Clarkston has now won sixth of the last 10 titles (2013-22) and now second behind Lakeside (31) in county championships with the six trophies. The boys’ championship has been going on since 1962. The Angoras are winners of three of the last four titles and has two runners-up finishes since 2013 and five overall.
Woellore win gives Clarkston five individual gold medals in the championships and the first since Suheib Mohamed in 2016.
See link below for the complete 2022 DCSD Cross Country County Championships results: