MS Cane Runners Improve Times

Jasper County Middle School Cross Country teams raced against middle schools from Putnam County, Morgan County, Oak Hill, and Georgia Military College Prep in a meet hosted by Putnam September 24 at the Uncle Remus Golf Course.

Both the girls and boys teams finished last but the participants were excited about the steady lowering of finishing times and individual standout performances.

Some Cane finishers had barely crossed the finish line before they were back out on the course encouraging those who were still running.

“I was really happy to see our guys and gals cheering on our team throughout the race. They are fully engaged in how our team is doing. We have awesome team chemistry,” said Coach Scott Cooper.

In the 3200m girls race, Mari Jablonski proved the importance of solid endurance and hill training, inching her way forward from third to the lead after the first mile. She finished in first place with a time of 13:51, 16 seconds ahead of the next runner.

Hayley Mote also saw an outstanding result from her hard work at practices, finishing strong in 20th place out of the field of 70 girls.

In the competitive boys race, it was eighth grader Tarek Ahmad who reached the finish line first of the Canes boys.

“Once again we improved all of our times,” noted Coach Cooper with pride. “Everyone did a fantastic job.”