County stars shine bright
- Updated: October 21, 2021
Pleasant Valley boys, White Plains girls win county cross country team titles; record-setting George, Conn win individual races
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
It was a good day to be a favorite.
On a day of intermittent showers when virtual became reality, all four pre-race favorites in Thursday’s Calhoun County Cross Country Championships at McClellan upheld their end.
Pleasant Valley, running in its usual pack attack, won the boys title by four points over Oxford. White Plains’ girls ran away with its third straight title in coach John Moore’s final County meet before retirement.
Oxford’s Noah George won the boys race in a County record time (16:32.72) and 1.6 seconds off the first-year C5 Course record. PV’s runner-up Cayden Nelson also ran a time (16:43.23) that would have broken the meet record of 16:46.32 set by White Plains’ Jake Moore in 2019.
White Plains’ Maddyn Conn won the girls race in 19:54.05, pulling away from a three-girl pack that included teammate Anna Strickland and Oxford runner-up Katie Keur that stayed out front and on each other’s elbow all race. Conn is the first girl to break 20 in the county meet since Alexandria’s Abby Nunnelly in 2017.
“The virtual meet is really just a guide,” White Plains coach John Moore said. “When I think about our county, I think about all-stars, studs. We’re loaded down with talent on the guys and girls sides. The stars that were supposed to be shining today, they shined bright.”
George ran a smooth race and his seemingly effortless stride carried him to a wire-to-wire victory. His missed the course record, set by Southside’s Jackson Griggs in the Bulldog Twilight Invite earlier this year, by less than two seconds, but still beat Nelson to the wire by 11.
“I really wanted to get the course record and possibly break 16 and PR,” George said. “I didn’t know what the county record was before this, but I was just going to push really, really hard no matter what.
“I knew I had to go out fast to get away from Cayden, but after I got through the first mile I tried to slow it down a little bit to regain my breath because I knew his last mile was always catching up to the guys in front of him so I knew I needed a little left for that last mile.”
Nelson’s runner-up time was fast enough to beat the county record, just not fast enough to beat George.
“It sucks that I got second but who’s going to complain, really,” Nelson said. “It’s just crazy that’s how much this sport has improved. It’s going to keep getting better and keep getting faster; that’s just how the sport is.”
Nelson may not have won the individual title, but he was a big part of the Raiders’ team crown. Oxford’s boys, who won last year’s team title in a tiebreaker, had three of the top four finishers in their race, but PV went 2-5 and its third, fourth, fifth and sixth runners all hit the line before the Yellow Jackets’ fourth counter and its seventh hit before the Jackets’ fifth.
The Raiders’ five counters came within an eyelash of becoming just the third team in race history with a team average under 18:00. They came in at 18:00.88; seven of their runners PR’d. Only Anniston (17:50) and PV (17:51) in the 2017 race at Oxford Lake broke the barrier.
“It doesn’t take me for us to win state, it takes the whole team, so that’s more of what we focus on,” Nelson said.
“I always tell the kids it’s easy quit on yourself when it hurts, but when you know your teammate and brother is counting on you, then it’s so much harder to quit,” PV coach Brad Hood said. “If they’re just out here running for their personal gain and glory, when things aren’t going well it’s easy to give up. It’s kind of like that locker room mentality in football and basketball that I’ve got to go hard for my team and so we really, really just focus everything on team.
To that end, the two biggest celebrations in the team huddle were lone senior Ryan Eubanks finishing 12thand making all-county for the first time in his last county race and junior Ethan Kirkpatrick meeting the Raiders’ sub-20 qualifying standard for state the first time with the help of sophomore Jacob Haynes dropping back to pace. Kirkpatrick had been running since seventh grade without making the team’s postseason top 10.
“The whole team pack mentality just showed today,” Hood said. “When you can see six blues in the all-county, it’s beautiful. That’s fun.”
Speaking of last county races, the White Plains girls gave their coach a nice going-away present. Moore has already said he was stepping away to pursue other interests.
The Lady Wildcats placed four counters among the top 10 (with Adriana Sotelo and Baylie Webb ninth and tenth), all five scorers among the top 15 all-county picks and their first seven in the top 20. They won by 23 points over Alexandria.
“It’s nice to win county on your last one,” Moore said. “Of course, we have sectionals next week; like to win that. It’s nice for them to go three in a row (in county). Sectionals they were runner-up last year, so they really want to be sectional champs this year.”
CALHOUN COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIPS
At C5 Course, McClellan
BOYS RACE
Team scores: Pleasant Valley 37, Oxford 41, White Plains 101, Jacksonville 104, Alexandria 114, Faith Christian 170, Donoho 183, Ohatchee 251, Piedmont 260.
Top 15 (All-county)
Noah George, Oxford 16:32.72 (meet record, old record 16:46.32, Jake Moore, White Plains, 2019)
Cayden Nelson, Pleasant Valley 16:43.23
Evan Somers, Oxford 17:50.05
Justin Dempsey, Oxford 18:00.01
Alec Vess, Pleasant Valley 18:01.77
Evan Garner, Jacksonville 18:07.28
Jonah Medders, Alexandria 18:13.78
Caden Johnson, White Plains 18:22.73
Braxton Williams, Pleasant Valley 18:22.94
Jaden Veazey, Pleasant Valley 18:26.28
Matthew Walden, Pleasant Valley 18:30.18
Ryan Eubanks, Pleasant Valley 18:33.20
Landon Garner, Jacksonville 18:40.22
Braxton Snider, Oxford 18:40.89
Sawyer Conn, White Plains 18:45.05
GIRLS RACE
Team scores: White Plains 36, Alexandria 59, Jacksonville 83, Oxford 96, Pleasant Valley 101, Ohatchee 139.
Top 15 (All-county)
Maddyn Conn, White Plains 19:54.05
Katie Keur, Oxford 20:12.77
Anna Strickland, White Plains 20:22.78
Sarah Sloughfy, Jacksonville 21:09.77
Michaela Moore, Alexandria 21:11.48
Emerson Maniscalco, Oxford 21:27.76
Michaela Watts, Alexandria 21:38.44
Macey Roper, Pleasant Valley 22:09.09
Adriana Sotelo, White Plains 22:21.32
Baylie Webb, White Plains 22:33.69
Mattie Todd, Piedmont 22:48.88
Emma Easterling, Jacksonville 22:53.70
Jojo Watson, Alexandria 22:54.48
Kate Reeves, White Plains 23:23.64
Toryn Barnes, Alexandria 23:27.39
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