Cross Country Teams Compete

Jasper Country High School (JCHS) varsity cross country teams traveled to Thomaston last Tuesday to pit themselves against some larger schools, racing three AAAA sqauds from Upson Lee High School, Mary Persons High School and Howard High School, and AAA Pike County High School, and AAAAA Stockbridge High School, in a meet hosted by Upson Lee.

Upson Lee debuted a grueling new course this year that is laid out on a series of moderate to steep hills. The difficulty of the 3.1 mile course caused most runners’ finishing times to average a couple minutes slower than their usual, but the results were a good early season indicator of the athletes’ strength and conditioning.

Despite some solid individual performances, the JCHS boys team finished in sixth place behind the five larger schools. Powerhouse Mary Persons took the overall win by sweeping the first four places individually, followed by Howard and Pike, both of which kept all five of their scoring finishers in the top 20.

For the Cane boys, senior Robert Womack was again the top finisher this week, completing the course in 23:26 for 36th place in the field of 78 runners. Junior Jack Johnston followed, finishing in 50th place and 25:16, just 13 seconds slower than on the previous meet’s mostly flat course.

The big surprise this week was sophomore Kevin Oritz, who shed almost three minutes off his previous time to finish third for JCHS, crossing the line in 54th place with a time of 26:23.

Completing the JCHS top five were Andrew Schilling (57th place, 26:39) and Joseph Billings (58th place, 26:42).

In the varsity girls race, JCHS garnered solid wins over Pike and Stockbridge to finish in 4th place overall, but fell to the broader team strength of Mary Persons, Upson Lee and Howard. Finishing within four points of each other, and with only Howard having a single runner below the top 20 finishers, the three teams followed the boys’ lead in demonstrating the value of team depth in gaining top team finishes.

Individually, the JCHS girls had some excellent performances and improvements. In the field of 58 runners, junior Alina Jablonski finished in second place with a time of 23:44, 14 seconds behind Howard’s sophomore standout Jordan Rozier. Mari Jablonski finished just four seconds behind her sister to earn third place with a 23:48 time, leaving the top Mary Persons runner 25 seconds behind and in fourth place.

Riley Burton finished next for JCHS, using a strong ending sprint to earn 27th place in 33:59. Morgan Clement showed a marked improvement, finishing in 33rd place with a 35:39, only a half second slower than her previous meet’s time on a much flatter course.

Rounding out the JCHS top five was senior Deseray Norwood, completing her first race in 36th place with a time of 35:59.

Both varsity teams were to visit Madison on Wednesday to compete in the Rick Boulis Invitational, hosted by Morgan County High School.