MOULTRIE — The Colquitt County boys cross country team finished fourth at the recent Region 1-7A cross country meet held at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College and qualified for the state meet.

Matthew Rakestraw, Hayes Lightsey, Maury Rodriguez Falcon, James  Fagan, Isaac Rodriguez, Ismal Rodriguez and Jaziel Rodriguez will represent Colquitt County at the Class 7A boys state meet, which will be be held at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 6, at Carrollton High School.

Rakestraw had the Packers’ best finish, coming in eighth.

Colquitt was one runner short of a full girls team.

Mattie Rigsby had the Lady Packers best finish, placing 11th.

Brooke Wright, Yarely Zonqua and Rebecca Perez also ran for the Colquitt County girls.

Lowndes swept the region cross country titles.

The Lowndes girls placed all five counting runners in the top eight for 29 points.

The Vikings had the top three runners in the boys’ race and finished with 21 points.

Camden County’s Marin Bograd was the top overall runner for the girls, with her 20:36 helping the Lady Wildcats finish in second. Tift County was third.

Camden also second as team in the boys’ standings, with Tift again third. Colquitt was fourth.

Matthew Herndon (17:12), Aaron Munger (17:27) and Toshiya Bass (17:36) crossing the finish line 1-3.

Blair Golden of Tift was fourth overall at 17:46. Reiley English of Camden was two seconds behind for fifth.

Connor Lites of Lowndes was sixth and Bowen Geisbrech of Camden was seventh before Colquitt’s first runner, Matthew Rakestraw, came in at eighth.

Blake Jaramillo at ninth was Lowndes’ fifth and final counting runner. Camden’s Braxton Demoss completed the top 10.

The Vikings had all seven runners place in the top 12, though the last two did not count toward the team’s points total.

Tift was able to notch third place via Ben Wilson, Juan Bautista and Aidan Evans earning 13-15.

Sergio Martinez completed scoring in 25th place. Dawson McMillan and Hayden Roberts were the squad’s other two runners.

Camden’s other counting runners were Asher Bograd and Ryder Kay.

Beyond Rakestraw, Colquitt’s scoring lineup was Maury Rodriguez Falcon, Jaziel Rodriguez, James Fagan and Isaac Rodriguez.

All 28 runners on the course were in by 22:10.

Bograd was first overall in the girls meet, with Tift’s Ainsley Toews (21:09) in second.

Lowndes’ first runner to cross was Kendall Johnson in 21:21. Camden had fourth with Alexia Vinuela, then the Vikettes surged with the next four — Lillie Rohrbach, Laura Mason, Madison Parker and Bianca Anderson — to secure the championship.

Ava Wilson of Tift and Audrey Adams of Lowndes rounded out the top 10.

Camden earned second with Krystal Corey, Sadie Martin and Emma Bledsoe placing in the top 17.

Madeline Perrin, Lauren Brey and Hannah Larger also accumulated points for Tift, with Nathaly Rivera and Jennifer Sandoval also on the course.

After the varsity teams ran, a coed junior varsity race was held on the same course.

Lowndes’ future looks extremely bright as the Vikings had the top six runners.

Becky Taylor of The Tifton Gazette contributed copy and photos to this report.