Cartersville girls 15th, boys 19th at state cross country meet

The Cartersville High School girls cross country team was 15th and the boys team was 19th at the Georgia High School Association Class AAAA State Championship meet Saturday.

Marist swept the two team titles.

The Marist girls finished 17 points ahead of Oconee County, followed by Blessed Trinity, St. Pius, and White County.

The Region 5-AAAA champion Lady Canes at 15th, finished ahead of region rivals Chapel Hill (18th), LaGrange (23rd), and Central-Carroll (24th) in the 30 team field that included 203 individual runners.

Nicole Pachuta of Oconee County won the girls Class AAAA race in 19:26.

Cartersville was led by Vanna Beach (73rd, 23:43), Alex Machado (79th, 23:58), Zane Bryant (80th, 24:01), Alice Terry (83rd, 24:09), Katie Tolbert (89th, 24:14), Abby Forristall (115th, 25:06) and Kayla Carpenter (129th, 25:28).

Knox Pittman of Marist won the Class AAAA boys race and led the War Eagles to the state title.

St. Pius was five points behind Marist as team runner-up. North Oconee, Blessed Trinity, and Oconee County rounded out the top five.

The Hurricanes qualified for the state meet with a fourth place finish at the Region 5-AAAA meet, but finished ahead of region rivals Chapel Hill (20th) and Sandy Creek (24th) in the 31 team state championship field that was comprised of 219 runners. LaGrange of Region 5-AAAA placed 13th.

Cartersville was led by Bill Archer (61st, 18:14). He was followed by Jacob Busek (105th, 19:35), Max Florence (107th, 19:36),Parker Breedlove (142nd, 20:12), Clay Ross (156th, 20:46), Sim Archer (157th, 20:48), and Harrison Banks (164th, 20:57).

Photos courtesy Cartersville XC