CARROLLTON — Pierce County’s Lady Bears’ and Bears’ crosscountry teams posted Top 20 finishes here Saturday in the Class AA state meet.
The Lady Bears finished 18th in the field of 23 teams while the Bears placed 20th in the field of 24 teams.
Savannah Arts Academy captured the girls’ championship with a threepoint decision over runner-up Columbus. The Lady Panthers placed all five runners in the top 13 positions to finish with 34 points. Columbus talled 37 points.
The rest of the Top 10 was comprised of Union County (175), East Jackson (182), Morgan County (194), Coahulla Creek (214), Washington-Atlanta (223), Pike County (240), Franklin County (241) and Hart County (280).
Finishing 11th through 20th were Rockmart (299), Sonoraville (312), Appling County (352), Crisp County (370), Therrell (374), Cook (447), Jackson (455), PCHS (487), North Murray (496) and Murray County (499).
The final three spots went to Jordan (520), KIPP Atlanta (539) and Tattnall County (567).
The Lady Bears were paced by Emma Strickland’s 77th-place finish in the field of 144 runners with a time of 28:16.82. The winning time was 19:41.92.
Strickland was followed by Nevaeh Grant (85th, 28:43.29), Ana Llamas-Diaz (105th, 30:29.75), Ansleigh Cyr (111th, 31:25.93), Mary Emma Moore (124th, 33:11.26), Emily Sierra (134th, 34.39.99) and Addison Folette (138th, 35:24.06).
East Jackson easily won the boys’ title finishing with 55 points and three of the top 10 finishers. KIPP Atlanta (92) was second followed by Crisp County (152), Hart County (169), Savannah Arts (195), Union County (200), Franklin County (215), Rockmart (226), Columbus (235) and Jackson (277) in the Top 10.
Therrell (349) led 11 through 20 and was followed by Pike County (371), Tattnall County (402), Sonoraville (413), Coahulla Creek (414), Murray County (421), Cook (423), North Murray (430), Morgan County (430) and PCHS (498).
The last four were Jordan (523), Redan (525), Appling County (529) and Spencer (646).
Dylan Hersey topped the Bears finished 67th in the field of 163 runners with a time of 20:27.42. The winning time was 17:15.15.
Hersey was followed by Chase Smith (75th, 20:45.38), Samuel Carrillo (97th, 21:28.44), Micah Bryant (128th, 22:58.67), Jeb Bradley (141st, 23:27.38), Brandon Yepes (147th, 24:02.85) and James Alonso (151st, 24:31.25).
