Cartersville XC girls win region, boys second

The Cartersville girls won the Region 5-AAAA cross country championship and the Cartersville boys placed second Thursday at Clinton Farms in Douglas County.

Both teams will advance to the Class AAAA State Championships on Saturday, November 5 at Carrollton High School. The boys state title race will be at 9:30am with the girls championship race to follow at 10:15am.

The Cartersville girls finished with 48 points, followed by Chapel Hill (56), LaGrange (66), and Sandy Creek (79).

Alaina Tomlinson of LaGrange won the girls race in 20:33.

All five scoring runners for the Cartersville girls finished in the top 16 individually and all seven team members finished in the top 27.

Kayla Carpenter was the top finisher for the Lady Canes in 21:57. She was followed closely by teammates Vanna Beach (22:05) and Abby Forristall (22:42). Caroline Fahey (23:31) and Krystinn Dabbs (23:44) rounded out the top five runners for Cartersville.

Ally McElwee (24:45) and Katie Tolbert (24:59) also ran for the Lady Canes.

The Cartersville boys finished second behind Sandy Creek by only four points, 41-45. Chapel Hill was third with 82 points and Cedartown (93) edged LaGrange (94) for fourth.

Wilson Moore of Chapel Hill won the boys individual title with a 16:06 run on the 5K course.

The Canes were led by Robby Earick (17:00), who ran third overall, and Andy Sims (17:08), fourth overall.

Jacob Busek (10th, 17:56), William Matherne (12th, 18:05), and Will Pruitt (16th, 18:20) completed Cartersville’s top five scoring runners. Jake Hacker (18:40) and David Mejia (18:48) ran 20th and 25th individually.