Tucker’s Abdeleselam Kerebo (left) won the first varsity boys’ race and Druid Hills Indie Shuler (right) was the girls’ runner-up. (Photo by Mark Brock)
The opening week of DeKalb County cross country meets was a busy one with 171 varsity runners combined competing in two races and 73 more in junior varsity competition on Tuesday at the Druid Hills Middle School course.
Dunwoody (girls) and Lakeside (boys) opened the first varsity race of the year with victories as 144 runners took the course. Dunwoody took five of the top six spots to win with 19 points followed by Lakeside (53), Stephenson (85), Druid Hills (102) and Tucker (118).
Dunwoody freshman Brooke Linard crossed the finish line first in the girls race with a time of 23:13.70 as the first of six Lady Wildcats to get Top 10 finishes on the day.
Druid Hills Indie Schuler (23.29.60) took second and then the next four spots went to Dunwoody. Senior Abby Reams (23:38.40) was third followed in order by senior Chloe Warren (23:42.80), freshman Tamar Amrani (23:58.50) and freshman Sarah Jane Shipley (24:03.60).
Second place Lakeside took seventh through ninth led by junior Wendy Skinner (24:11.60), sophomore Parker White (24:19.00) and freshman Poppy Deets-McHugh (24:43.60).
Dunwoody senior Hannah Litvak (24:54.80) rounded out the Top 10 runners for the girls.
Lakeside picked up a 39-46 win over Dunwoody in the boys’ first race of the day followed by Druid Hills (68) and Tucker (79).
Tucker senior Abdelesalem Kerebo led from start to finish to run a sub-18 minute time of 17:56.40 to capture medalist honors.
Lakeside junior Andrew Bitsko was the first of four Vikings in the top 10 finishing second to Kerebo in 18:54.60. Senior Reese Vaughn (19:52.60) was fifth with senior Dylan Kirk (19:55.60) in seventh and sophomore Adam Berkowitz (19:57.10) to give Lakeside the advantage.
Dunwoody put the pressure on with six runners in the first 15 finishers led by junior Alex Loffredio (19:47.50) in third. Senior Oliver Abbot (19:57.80) was ninth and freshman Jensen Elwell (19:58.50) was tenth as the Wildcats closed the gap.
Lakeside’s Ben Olsen (21:39.40) finished 19th overall scoring 17 points to clinch the win for the Vikings.
Druid Hills had a pair of runners in the Top 10 in senior Jack Fishbein (19:51.00) in fourth and junior Finnan LeBlanc (19:55.30) in sixth.
Martin Luther King Jr. swept the individual titles in the second varsity races. Braylin Grier (left) won the boys’ title and India Thorpe too the top spot in the girls’ race. (Photo by Mark Brock)
SECOND VARSITY RACE
The second varsity had the Martin Luther King Jr. Lady Lions cruising and the Southwest DeKalb Panthers slipping past the Lions in the boys’ meet.
The Panthers took the boys’ meet 27-30 as Southwest DeKalb and Martin Luther King were the only teams with enough qualifying runners.
King had the first two finishers to cross the line in seniors Braylin Grier (18:42.40) and C’Andre Reid (19:51.20).
Southwest DeKalb took third through sixth led by sophomores Slater Thorpe (20:47.60) and Terrence Swift (21:11.50) finishing third and fourth, respectively. Senior Cornelius Jackson (21:19.40) was fifth and junior Caleb Jefferies (22:17.50) was sixth.
Columbia grabbed the next three spots as sophomore Roy Ester (22:30.10) was seventh, sophomore Darren Mix (22:49.60) in eighth and freshman Xxavious Phillips (24:23.00) was ninth.
King’s Elijah Saunders (24:25.00) was tenth. Southwest DeKalb sophomore Cantrell Williams (25:18.70) took 12th to clinch the win for the Panthers.
The girls’ race was dominated by the Lady Lions as they had the only full qualifying team and took the first six spots. Senior India Thorpe (25:36.00) was first followed by senior Taryn Adams (26:42.90), junior Jarriatou Faye (27:10.00), sophomore Love Ekpoudom (29:26.70), junior Jada Mathis (32:04.70) and sophomore Jada Moye (32:05.60).
Columbia senior Javona Wiley (36:38.70) was seventh.
Lakeside’s Nathan Pohl (left) won the JV boy’s title and Tucker’s Anna Hodder (right) won the girls JV title. (Photo by Mark Brock)
JUNIOR VARSITY
The Southwest DeKalb Lady Panthers and Redan Raiders took the junior varsity race titles which had total of 73 runners competing in the opening race of the season.
Southwest DeKalb put five runners in the first 12 to cross the finish line to knock off Lakeside 32-46 and Tucker came in third with 52 points.
Tucker eighth grader Anna Hodder grabbed first in the girls’ race in 16:00.40 before Southwest DeKalb took the next two places with sophomores Sanaa Stanton (16:14.10) and Nina Gilbert (17:03.70).
Southwest DeKalb had sophomore Azaria Tatum (19:02.40) finish ninth with juniors Autumn Cook (19:10.10) and Deja Sims (19:39.20) coming in 11th and 12th, respectively, to seal the win.
Second place Lakeside put three runners in the Top 10 as eighth graders Olivia McMahan (18:05.50), Vivian Vonwalsung (18:05.80) and Ryan Lynch (18:09.70) finished fifth through seventh, respectively.
Araba Mountain had a pair of runners grab Top 10 spots as junior Kenya Dean (18:02.70) was fourth overall and Ania Andrews (19:02.90) took tenth.
Tucker got a second Top 10 finish as sophomore Sherlyn Mejia (18:41.10) came across in eighth.
Redan had four runners cross in the Top 10 to outrun Lakeside 34-67 to capture the boys’ title. Cross Keys (75) was third followed by Tucker (81), Columbia (117) and Martin Luther King Jr. (132).
The boy’s individual title went to Lakeside’s Nathan Pohl (13:26.90) following by Columbia sophomore Zion Smith (13:57.00).
Redan picked up the third and fourth spots led by Shaun Thornton (14:09.20) and Micah Thompkins (14:09.60) right behind. Redan’s Amari Guess (14:41.30) was sixth and Patrick Yidin (15:13.30) was ninth.
Tucker’s Noah Smith (14:41.00 was fifth overall while Cross Keys’ top finisher Christian Teodoso (15:12.60) was eighth. Arabia Mountain’s Kristian Oliver (15:26.80) closed out the Top 10 finishers.
See link below for the full results: