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Tift teams place high at own invitational

becky taylor, the tifton gazette, ga.
·4 min read

Oct. 3—TIFTON — Tift Middle's girls team won the Tift County Invitational and both high school squads placed in the top four at the annual event, held at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College Saturday, Sept. 30.

The high school Blue Devils were 2nd as a team, Union Grove blowing everyone else out of the water. The Wolverines, from Henry County, scored 37 points, with Tift far behind at 138. Lee County placed 1st in the high school girls division, with Tift placing 3rd. Coffee was the 2nd place school.

Tift Middle's girls had 64 points, 31 ahead of Coffee Middle. With runners as young as fourth grade, Tiftarea Academy's girls were 3rd. Berrien Middle did not have any runners above 9th place, but still breezed to victory for middle school boys. Tiftarea was 10th and Tift was 11th.

Nearly 30 high schools brought partial or full teams to ABAC, with more than 400 boys and girls completing the course.

Blair Golden returned to competition, earning 13th place overall with his time of 17:53. Union Grove's Johnny McCarthy was the first to finish at 16:37. Owen Davies followed in 16th place at 18:15 and Tift had its usual parade of runners coming in under 20 minutes.

Anthony Falatico ran in 18:59 for 33rd individually. Jaxson Hughes had a time of 19:05, Elijah Hellman was at 19:23 and Dawson McMillan ran under banner at 19:49. Kason Horner, Henry Anderson, Jackson Shirts all finished under 21:30. Hatcher Swanson, Braden Rehberg, Reed Allison, Logan Mathis and Cedric Robinson ran for the blue as well.

With Tiftarea back on the gridiron, the Panthers did not have enough for a team score. Jude Bailey placed 19th individually in 18:18. Jase Hendricks ran in 20:42. Beau Hembree and Griffin Goodman completed their lineup.

Tift's Lady Devils scored 115 points to finish behind Lee and Coffee. They had one more runner than the previous week, with six finishers.

Lola Reynolds' 22:26 gave her 9th place individually. Helping the Tift cause was Ava Wilson's 23:35 time and Noemi Hernandez, Illianna Cleveland and Emmalyn Lukas placing 29th-31st in team points and 30th-30nd overall. Keira Gibbs was the sixth runner.

Tiftarea's top runner was Kate Phillips in 21:20, placing 25th overall. Frances Nelson, Julianne Hogg, Annliese Hester and Audrey Paulk were their other runners.

Three runners in the top 10 and all five in the top 25 was the reason the middle school Lady Devils finished at the top of the heap. Jovia Burke placed 4th at 13:37, Katherine Currie was 7th at 13:46 and Bailey Brock's 14:12 earned her 10th place. Jana Webster was 21st individually and Haleigh Nelson was 24th.

Middle school races were just as packed at their high school counterparts. There were 361 boys and girls runners and each middle school race had 16 full teams. All were from the area, from Furlow Charter and Wilcox County, all the way to Bainbridge's Grace Christian and Coffee.

Some of the cities represented only sent middle school teams, such as in the case of Colquitt County, or Turner County, the latter of which is growing a program. Irwin County, similarly young, was able to have full teams in each run.

Tiftarea continues to impress in middle school girls. Their top five — which earned 3rd place as a team — were an eighth grader, a seventh grader, two fifth graders and a fourth grader.

The eighth grader, Daylen Phillips had their top time of 15:18, 23rd overall. Lizzie Hendricks ran in 15:21 for 26th overall. Eleanor Walker, Eleanor Dorman and Omie Pate finished in the top 51 in runners counting towards team points.

Emri Golden, Allie Barton, Sarah Roberts, Jaycee Powell, Rowyn Croft and Mary Wynn Jones were the other runners for the young Lady Panthers. Tift Middle's girls had two more top 50 finishers in Chloe Gibbs and Marlee Schwartz. Norah Monfort, Bella Burdette, Madison Schwartz, Morgan Richards and Maggie Nelson completed the team.

Keliah Smith of Coffee was the first to the finish line in 12:24, a minute ahead of her nearest competitor. For the middle school boys, it was Colquitt's Hudson Champion in 11:05.

Pierce Fulp (12:51), Grayson Ricks (13:17) and Keith Dorman (13:44) were top 45 runners for Tiftarea. Bryson Hobgood, Sawyer Bennett, Corey Moorman, Ethan Moorman, Sawyer Campbell, Uzziah Barton, Davis Holt, Eli Crosby, Coley Underwood and Ford Dark additionally crossed the finish line.

Kellan Lukas was 18th overall for Tift Middle's boys in 12:42. William Maxwell turned in a top 30 time in 13:11. Other young Blue Devils were Caleb Thaba, Wills Tyre, Gavin Carlson, John Wood and Eli Ross.

Providence Christian again had competitors three of the four races. Emily Pate and Asa Harris ran at the high school level. Billy Wayde Harris, Phillip Oliver and Calvin Campbell competed for middle school boys.