The Daily Tribune News

Blessed Trinity, Woodland, Cartersville and Calhoun finished 1-4 in the boys and girls varsity races during the Region 7-5A championship meet Tuesday at Woodland.

The Titans dominated both races, placing six runners inside the top 10 in each event. Meanwhile, the host Wildcats managed to outpace the Canes in both.

Calhoun’s girls team finished a comfortable fourth ahead Hiram, while the boys held off Cass to qualify for state.

Woodland’s Rylee Evans paced the locals, placing third in 19 minutes, 45.28 seconds. The senior finished barely a second behind runner-up Kelly Ann Sutterfield. However, Katie Hamfeldt eased to victory by 10-plus seconds.

Sutterfield, Hamfeldt and four other Blessed Trinity runners split the top-10 places with a Woodland foursome. Olivia Berry (5th), Emma Segars (6th) and Miranda Pelow (10th) joined Evans in the top 10.

Danielle Thayer finished 14th to round out the scoring for the Wildcats, who trailed the Titans by a 22-38 margin.

McKinsey Spinks led Cartersville, which wound up with 77 points, by placing 11th.

The Canes swept the 15th-18th positions. Kaylana Pennington-Brooke, Meredith Gaines and Trinity Atkins finished in quick succession, while Anna Grace Boone came in more than 18 seconds after Atkins.

On the boys side, Tyler Jones (17:02.60) and McKinley Chappell (17:06.01) paced Woodland, coming in fourth and fifth after a trio of Blessed Trinity competitors.

Drew Thayer finished 13th; Kain Tanturri wound up 15th; and Andy Forsyth outpaced his older brother, John, to place fifth among the Wildcats and 18th overall.

Cartersville saw its top four runners — Sam Peters, Malachi Vosburgh, Levi Booth and Cainen Crowder — cross within roughly 15 seconds of each other to claim the 9th-12th spots.

Paul Hyman edged Barrett Stepp to be the Canes’ fifth scorer and the 22nd overall finisher, as Cartersville wound up nine points (55-64) behind Woodland.

Critton Gearhart (17th) and Jake Wright (19th) both put together strong showings for Cass, which came in 15 points behind Calhoun. Andrew Rampey, Brice Keith and Abiatar Reyes rounded out the Colonels scorers.

The cross country state meet will take place next weekend in Carrollton. The Class 5A boys race is slated to start at 9:30 a.m. Nov. 6, with the girls to follow at 10:15.