Canes XC Teams Prove Swift in Milledgeville
The cross-country teams traveled to Milledgeville last weekend where they competed in the 8th Annual Braves Invitational at Council Farms. The High School girls varsity team took home first place as a team, beating both Georgia Military College Prep and old region rival, Oglethorpe County.
The team’s top five runners for the Canes were Colbie Ramsey, Kiley Robinson, Taryn McCart, Danyellie McCoy, and Allison Gonzalez. Personal records were set by freshman Taryn McCart and Danyellie McCoy.
The boys varsity team was missing most of its runners due to the Unicoi Trip the day before, but still were able to place fifth as a team thanks to Mason Smith with a swift time of 20:05.15, Daniel Mendoza, Michael Lopez, Bryce West and Jovanny Olguin. The JV team took home first place. PR’s were set by Mikey Harbin, Alan Bautista, Ricardo Lara, Michael Lopez, and Lane Mason.
The middle school teams also competed at the Braves Invitational alongside the high school teams, where they showed up and showed out. The boys’ team took first place out of eight teams, and was led by Tristan Campbell, Olin Capes, Jacob Smallwood, Caleb Gauntt and Luke Vance. Tristan, Olin, Jacob, and Caleb all took home medals placing third overall by Campbell, seventh by Capes, 10th by Smallwood, and 14th by Gauntt, out of an impressive 92 runners overall.
Most impressive was Wyatt Hudson, who had a season beginning two-mile time of 33 minutes, and now finished in 19:59.31, which was just hundredths of a second below the goal time of 20:00.00 which coaches require to qualify for state this upcoming weekend. Wyatt celebrated finishing just in time to seal his spot on the state team.
The girls’ team was also quite impressive as they took home second place overall out of eight teams. They fell short by only six-points to the number one team, West Laurens Middle School. The team points were scored by Georgia Xan Bolen who placed fifth overall out of 102 runners, Chloe Lackey who placed seventh overall, Sarah-Kait Kelly in eighth overall, Zaniya Cole 13th, and sixth grade runner Jaelyn Childers who was 23rd overall. Bolen, Lackey, Kelly, and Cole all took home medals for their overall finishes.
The teams have grown tremendously throughout the season, with training sessions being led by Coach West, Bennett, Kissel, Finch, and Coach B. Runners will be training all week as they prepare to head to the state race in Cochran this upcoming Saturday.