CHULA — Tiftarea Academy had a big finish Saturday at its own cross country meet, the annual Panther Prowl.
Tiftarea’s varsity girls placed second, trailing only the independent Trailblazers Athletics. The Trailblazers had three of the top six runners. Tiftarea’s first to finish was Kate Phillips, who was 13th overall (seventh for runners part of full teams) with a time of 27:46.
Though seventh was Tiftarea’s top position, all five counting runners were in the top 13 for points. Daylen Phillips was ninth, Sarah Grace Kozma 10th, Peyton Cleghorn 12th and Ruthie Mobley 13th.
Annaliese Hester, Julianne Hogg and Audrey Paulk ran as well.
Valwood was third and Southwest Georgia Academy second. SGA had the first and second place runners, Marigrace Garcia-Simmons and Emmalee Johnson. Garcia-Simmons crossed the finish line in 22:08. Johnson was third overall, but the runner ahead from Sherwood Christian was not part of a full team.
Tift County only had four Lady Devils participate in the varsity race. Stella Byrnes was 19th overall in 29:28. Following Byrnes were Jennifer Sandoval, Savannah Denham and Mazie Leigh Werner.
Providence School was represented by Lily Sims.
Sherwood Christian’s boys won the varsity meet with 33 points. Ware County was second at 64. Tift was fifth and Tiftarea was sixth.
William Tyre and Jackson Shirts were the fastest runners for the Blue Devils. Tyre, 13th overall, ran in 21:47. Shirts, 15th, had a time of 22:18.
Jase Hendricks, Chase Parrish and Keith Dorman were Tiftarea’s first three. Hendricks finished in 23:44, with Parrish right behind him at 23:45. Dorman, battling a cramp at the finish, ran in 24:09. Beau Hembree and Banks Brownlee were the other runners counting towards the Panthers’ total.
Reed Allison, Ethan Lashley and Logan Mathis earned points for Tift. Dante Kennedy represented Providence.