STAFF REPORT
The Woodland boys and girls cross country teams each placed first among the Bartow County programs and second overall in the Wire2Wire Invitational Saturday at Dellinger Park.
While both sets of Wildcats finished runner-up to Cambridge, they managed to outpace Cartersville, which came in third on the girls side and fourth on the boys.
Cass placed ninth in boys, while Adairsville came in 10th out of 11 teams. The two schools combined to enter just one girl — the Tigers’ Callie Viktora, who finished 26 of 46 competitors — in the varsity event.
Of the local individual runners, Woodland’s Rylee Evans paced the group, finishing second. The senior completed the course in 19 minutes, 32.2 seconds.
Her teammate, Olivia Berry placed sixth, with Emma Segars not far behind in eighth. Miranda Pelow (12th) and Danielle Thayer (13th) finished back-to-back.
Cartersville’s top runner, McKinsey Spinks crossed just before Pelow and Thayer in 11th place.
The Canes had a group of five competitors finish between 16th and 21st. Kaylana Pennington-Brooke led the quintet, with Elizabeth Nelson (18th), Meredith Gaines (19th), Trinity Atkins (20th) and Samantha Herrera (21st) finishing within 15 seconds of each other.
Tyler Jones led the local boys participants, as the Woodland junior came in third with a time of 16 minutes, 57.7 seconds. Wildcats seniors McKinley Chappell (6th) and John Forsyth (10th) both joined Jones in the top 10.
A trio of Woodland sophomores — Kain Tanturri (20th), Andy Forsyth (21st) and Landon McSwain (23rd) — each placed between 20th and 23rd.
Levi Booth (11th), Malachi Vosburgh (13th) and Cainen Crowder (14th) — Cartersville’s top three finishers — crossed the line within a four-second span. Paul Hyman (29th) and Barrett Stepp (41st) rounded out the Canes scorers.
Cass’ top runner, Jake Wright finished just behind Stepp in 41st out of 94 competitors. Adam Pierce (61st), Leonardo Galeana (67th), Sawyer Foy (69th) and Jacob Peace (78th) completed the scoring members of the Colonels.
Brayden Miller paced Adairsville’s boys, winding up in 53rd position. Griffin Bozeman wasn’t far behind in 59th place. Sophomores Jace Silvers (76th), Gavin Tatum (90th) and Cody Teer (91st) were the other Tigers in the event.
