TIFTON — Tift County High School will host the 16th annual Tift Invitational this Saturday.

The cross country meet will take place at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College. High school girls start at 8:30 a.m. with the high school boys following at 9:15 a.m. Middle school girls will run at 10 a.m. and middle school boys at 10:30 a.m.

Many area teams are scheduled to compete.

Camden County and Colquitt County will compete from Tift’s region, 1-AAAAAAA. It is one of the few times during the season the Blue Devils will see Camden.

Schools of all sizes have also entered the meet and 800 runners are expected to participate. Berrien, Cook, Fitzgerald, Worth County and Valdosta have signed up to compete as have Baker County, Thomasville, Westover, Coffee and Baconton Charter.

Twenty-eight high and middle schools have indicated on MileSplit GA they will attend.

Middle schools entered include Eighth Street, Ben Hill Middle, MacIntyre Park (Thomasville), Valdosta Middle and Coffee Middle.

Tift cross country has had a remarkable season.

As a team, the Lady Devils have posted three top five finishes and the Devils have been in the top five twice.

Emily Golden has had first place finishes at three events — the Winnersville meet, the Jekyll Island Invitational and at the Bainbridge Bearcat Invitational.

She was also in the top five at the Cougar Cross Country Challenge, the Lee County High School Invitational and the Deerfield-Windsor Invitational. Ashlee Golden was also in the top 10 at Lee County

J.D. Bengston was in the top 10 at Winnersville, Bainbridge and Deerfield.