Cross country teams finish third in Leesburg

Published 9:25 pm Saturday, September 13, 2008

MOULTRIE — The Colquitt County boys and girls cross country teams turned in third-place finishes in the Lee County Invitational in Leesburg on Saturday, with both squads turning in strong efforts, Coach Mell Wier said.

Tift County won the boys race, with Westover right behind.

Valdosta was fourth and Lee County finished fifth.

Colquitt took third with four runners turning in times of 19 flat or better and five running under 20 minutes.

“We showed a tremendous amount of improvement over last week,” Wier said.

Heath Lamb had the Packers best finish, coming in eighth.

Julio Perez was 15th and Carlos Charles was 18th. That trio was followed by Jonathan Cauthen, 26th; Craig Dabdoub, 48th; Jebb Cato, 55th; Joseph Strickland, 74th; and Zac Goodno, 91st.

The boys race drew some 120 runners.

“The effort we got was outstanding,” Wier said. “Everybody ran better than what they did last week.

“They all were able to find a little bit extra.”

Westover won the girls race, with Lee County second. Tift County’s girls placed fourth.

“That was the first time a Colquitt County girls team has beat Tifton in 15 or 16 years,” Wier said.

Valdosta was fifth.

Anna Hall ran a 21.50 to place fourth overall.

“That was the fastest girls time we’ve had since Amy Paine graduated,” Wier said.

Hall led one of the girls team’s best performances in years.

“All five girls were under 24:40,” Wier said. “It’s been a while since I’ve had a group that fast, maybe since we had Natalie Bevacqua, Michele Daniels, Piper and Paxton Gehle and Rebecca Paine. “We’re really happy with what we did today.”

The race drew 110 girls, Wier said.

There was some confusion about the places each girl finished, but Wier said the information he received should be close.

According to Wier, Lindsey Causey was 28th; Carly Moore was 32nd; Karli Brown was 33rd; Carla Duque was 35th; Morgan Hayes was 50th; Carly Banks was 55th; Laura Robinson was 64th; Lacey Webb was 65th; and Hannah Adair was 74th.

The Colquitt County middle school teams also ran on Saturday. Those results were not available.

The varsity Packers and Lady Packers will compete in the Mercer University meet on Saturday, Sept. 27 and then will play host to their first meet at Packer Park on Tuesday, Sept. 30.

Colquitt also will run at Packer Park on Oct. 9 and will play host to region meet there on Oct. 30.