BHS, PCHS, RHS, and THS runners qualify for state cross country championships after racing at section meets
Local high school cross country teams competed at their respective sectional meets on Thursday, October 30, and Friday, October 31, with an opportunity to qualify for the state championship meet in the balance.
At the Class 1A-2A Section 4 meet in Bremen on Friday, Belgreen High School and Tharptown High School had a combined 15 student-athletes qualify for the state meet after their performances.
Belgreen seniors Briseyda Luna, Jose Gabriel Estrada, and Miguel Perez and seventh grader Elizabeth Motes qualified for state with their times.
Luna finished 10th overall in the girls’ 5k race with a time of 22:23.17 while Motes took 26th place after finishing in 24:12.14. Perez and Estrada completed the boys’ sectional 5k in 17th and 18th place, respectively, with times of 19:27.41 and 19:30.61.
Lilibeth Cruz, Lidseidy Donagustin, Skylar Hardy, and Aaron Rubido also raced at the section meet for BHS.
Tharptown had 11 total runners qualify for the state meet after the section race. As a team, the THS boys placed fourth overall.
The 10 boys on the Wildcat roster for the state championships are Javin Brewer, Emmanuel Campos (who was THS’ top finisher at the section meet, placing seventh), Santiago Castro, Gincarlos Espinoza, Melvin Gutierrez, Hernan Hernandez, Daniel Jimenez, Joseph Osario, Edgar Perez, and Cesar Rueda.
Sophie Waldrep, an eighth grader, qualified individually for state after finishing 22nd in the girls’ 5k with a time of 23:33.55.
Natalee Franks, Isabella Hall, and Yesenia Ramirez also ran for the Tharptown girls at the section race.
The Phil Campbell cross country teams competed at the Class 3A Section 4 meet held at McFarland Park in Florence on Thursday. PCHS had four runners race at the section meet: Rayna Scott, Avery Wells, Bailey Nix, and Uriah Fisher.
The freshman Scott was the lone Phil Campbell runner to qualify for the 3A state race; she finished the girls’ section 5k 19th with a mark of 24:54.80.
At the Class 5A Section 4 meet in Scottsboro on Thursday, Russellville had both boys and girls teams competing giving the Golden Tigers 20 runners total there.
Sophomore Pascual Felipe was the boys’ team’s best finisher as he placed 10th in the 5k with a time of 17:03.58. Sophomore Heidy Jacobo was the top runner on the RHS girls’ team, placing 18th at 21:11.5. Felipe and Jacobo both qualified for the state meet, along with fellow sophomore Jonathon Manzo, who finished 28th in the Section 4 boys’ race.
As a team, the RHS boys finished fifth among 11 teams at section and the RHS girls placed seventh.
The AHSAA Cross County State Championships will be held at the Oakville Indian Mounds Park cross country course on Saturday, November 8.