Clarkston’s Abenezer Woellore led the Angora’s to a win in the first DCSD Cross Country Meet this season with a first place finish at the Druid Hills Middle School course. (Photo by Mark Brock)
Severe heat and thunderstorms caused the cancellation of the first two regular season DeKalb County cross country meets but the season got underway Tuesday at the Druid Hills Middle School course with over 300 runners competing in the two varsity races and junior varsity competition.
The Clarkston Angoras began the defense of their 2023 DCSD County Championship with a convincing win in the boys’ varsity to start the day.
Clarkston led by Abenezer Woellore (an eighth-place finisher at state a year ago) in first had seven runners finish in the top 10 to score 17 points to outdistance Martin Luther King (78), Chamblee (86) and Tucker (93) with teams under 100 points.
Woellore ran a day’s best time of 17:25.40 and finished ahead of teammates Christian Ishimwe (17:32.10) and Jean Paul Irasubiza (17:40.50) for an Angoras’ sweep of the top three spots.
Claude Tusiime (18:01.20) and Mengesha Alebachew (18:39.50) finished fifth and sixth for the Angoras to wrap up the win. Abdul Mahamat (18:57.90) was eighth and Moses Buraruhanya (19:28.00) claimed the final spot in the Top 10 for Clarkston.
King’s second place finish was spurred by Braylin Grier’s (19:11.30) ninth place finish along with Top 20 finishers Kameron Sutton (19:31.50, 14th), Omari Sawyer (19:44.90, 17th) and C’Andre Reid (20:25.60, 20th).
Chamblee was led by Matthew Coates (19:28.80) in 11th place and Bennett Gerspacher (19:34.00) in 15th place.
The fourth-place finish by Tucker was fueled by Abdeleselam Kerebo (17:41.30) who broke up a sweep of the Top 5 spots by Clarkston by coming in fourth overall. Norris Minnis (19:48.80) finished in 18th to give Tucker two Top 20 runners on the day.
Chamblee’s Tally Pendleton led the Chamblee Lady Bulldogs to an DeKalb season opening win with a first place finish at the Druid Hills Middle School course. (Photo by Mark Brock)
GIRLS FIRST VARSITY RACE
Chamblee place six runners in the Top 10 to outduel Druid Hills 16-45 for the win in the girls’ opening race at Druid Hills Middle School.
As did Clarkston in the boys’ race, the Lady Bulldogs swept the Top 3 finishes led by Talley Pendleton who grabbed medalist honors with a time of 21:34.40. Mary-Lawton Jones (22:06.20) and Emma Heron (24:13.80) followed Pendleton across the finish line.
Paige Pendleton (24:21.40) was fifth and Julia Cashin (25:01.60) was seventh for Chamblee. Esther Salaru (26:26.40) came in 10th for the Lady Bulldogs.
Druid Hills put two runners in the Top 10 led by Indie Shuler (24:27.40) in sixth and Nadirah Gilliams (26:23.10) in ninth.
Other Top 10 finishers included Lakeside’s India Thorpe (24:20.60) and Tucker’s Nuhamin E’Tegenu (26:16.70) in eighth.
BOYS’ SECOND VARSITY RACE
Lithonia won the second boys’ varsity race Druid Hills Middle powered by three Top 10 finishes to get past Arabia Mountain 23-24 for the top spot.
Daniel Weekes (22:49.20) finished third followed by Kyanau Chatman (24:27.60) in fifth and Marquez Coffey (25:13.700) in eighth to lead Lithonia’s win.
Arabia Mountain picked up Top 10 finishes from Nathan Jean-Leon (24:51.50) in sixth and Quen-En Sawyer (25:07.00) in seventh.
Towers was a runner short of qualifying for the team standings but led by Innocent Bembetem (21:14.20) put three runners in the Top 10. Marsalis Grier (25:17.70) was ninth and Devon McClendon (25:18.90) slipped into the Top 10.
Redna’s Zamarvian Green finished second overall with a time of 22:26.70 and Stone Mountain’s Matthew Small was fourth (24:22.20).
GIRLS’ SECOND VARSITY RACE
There were no qualifying teams for the team standings as several teams competed with less than five runners in the girls’ race but Lithonia had four of the Top 5 finishers to lead the way.
Malyia Jenkins crossed the finish line first in 32:09.40 and was followed by teammates Surraya Winters (33:05.50) and Azariyah Jones (34:36.90). Djiba Bah (34:59.80) finished fifth overall.
Araba Mountain was led by Jaelyn James (34:42.61) in fourth and Jordan Caldwell (38.44.40) in seventh. Stone Mountain’s Janae Woods (38:36.20) was sixth overall.
JUNIOR VARSITY
Chamblee swept the junior varsity races on Tuesday in the first JV runs of the season in DeKalb.
Chamblee outdistanced Clarkston 19-56 in the boys’ race led by a sweep of the Top 3 spots. Ryan Shimabukuro (12:51.90) came across first followed by Maximo Luciana (12:53.60) and Jackson Lonsdorf (12:57.40).
Chamblee’s Ian Mathews (13:00.40) was first and joined in the Top 10 by Patrick Shaw (13:19.50) in eighth and Mason Harter (13:23.9) in ninth.
Clarkston was led Daniele Seyfu (13:14.40) in seventh and Jonathan Alah-Hondoum (13:24.10) in 10th. Redan (76) finished third behind a fourth-place finish by KeSean Washington (12:57.90) and Gemere Jones (13:02.60) crossing in sixth.
The Lady Bulldogs secured the sweep by pushing the first four runners across the finish to win 16-58 over Lakeside.
Abigail Mueller (16:01.11) took top honors and was followed by Samantha Yarbrough (16:07.90), Alex Gilboa (16:10.00) and Autumn Bouldin (16:16.40) in fourth. Kathleen Mattison (17:07.70) was sixth for Chamblee and teammates Julianne Lee (17:34.40) and Syndey Moss (17:37.00) finished ninth and 10th, respectively.
Lakeside was led by Top 10 finishers Megan Wright (16:39.00) in fifth and Fay Tores (17:12.70) in seventh.
Arabia Mountain’s Amiyah Keel Harris finished eighth (17:14.60) to round out the Top 10.
See link below for full results of first DCSD Cross Country Meet: