Conn-grats!
- Updated: November 9, 2024
White Plains’ Conn wins third consecutive state Class 4A cross country title, her 10th overall individual state title in XC and track.
Editor’s note: Full results from Saturday’s AHSAA state cross country championship can be found on this link.
By East Alabama Sports Today
OAKVILLE — White Plains’ Maddyn Conn is once again a state cross country champion.
The senior ran Saturday’s girls’ Class 4A state-meet race in 18 minutes, 15.48 seconds and won her third state cross country title in as many years. She beat Indian Spring’s Catherine Hinson by 46 seconds.
The race held the form of most of her 10 victories in 10 starts this season. She dominated.
“I started out in front,” she said. “I think I heard, like, maybe there was another girl behind me, like, people shouting.
“After a mile or so, it was just kind of like, ‘All right. It’s my time. Let’s just go.'”
Conn said she started strong and hit the two–mile Mark on schedule.
“I was shooting for a little bit under 18,” she said. “The third mile was a little slower than I liked, but we still finished strong.”
While Conn fell short of her time goal, White Plains coach Chase Cotton put it in perspective. It’s just four seconds off of her personal best.
Among girls, only Homewood’s Emma Brooke Levering (Class 6A, 17:46.94), Brewer’s Rose Betts (5A, 17:54.60), Lawrence County’s Katie Mae Coan (5A, 18:05.82) and Auburn’s Sara Tole (7A, 18:13.06) ran faster times on the Jesse Owens course Saturday.
“It’s still the best race she’s ever run on that course,” Cotton said. “I told her we wanted to go out and dominant fashion, and that’s exactly what she did.”
Conn called being a three-time state cross country champion “surprising.”
“I’m just happy, and I’m so proud of the other girls, and my coach,” she said. “I couldn’t do it without all of them.”
White Plains’ Abbie Dickeson finished seventh in 19:54.13, and the Wildcats finished fourth with 140 points. Whitesburg Christian won with 48.
In other races, White Plains’ boys had the best team finish among area schools, taking second with 74 points. Hamilton won with 68.
White Plain’s Josh Duke, who got his first-ever win in the Calhoun County meet in October, finished sixth in 16:41.60.
The Wildcats’ “red map” runnner-up trophy marks the second in their history.
“We were seeded second to Hamilton, and the final point differential was closer than what we were seeded,” Cotton said. “We gained some ground on them.
“The guys ran a fantastic race. Hamilton just ran a better one. That’s all there is to it.”
White Plains’ boys return 26 of 30 runners next year, including four out of the top five, and the girls return 11 out of 15.
Cotton expects White Plains’ boys to compete for the championship next year, though Hamilton also loses only one of its top five runners.
“The girls still project to be top eight in the state next year in qualifying,” Cotton said. “We’ve got find some help to come in, but we have some great youth that are already there on this team with Lilah Strickland, Emerson Newton, Shelby Wilkins and Baylee Hannah, and we have some really strong seventh-graders coming in.
“Emerson Newton is kind of one that we’re watching. She’s on a very, very similar path as Maddyn. Comparatively, looking at Maddyn in eighth grade and Emmerson in eighth grade, it’s almost identical.”
Jacksonville’s girls took fifth place in Class 5A with 165 points. Emma Easterling, who had to pull out of the county meet with an injury, finished 11th in 20:14.09.
Donoho’s Hunter Hartwell finished sixth in Class 1A–2A at 16:58.52, and Pleasant Valley took sixth in the team standings. Max Jernigan led the Raiders, finishing 21st in 18:19.44.
State cross country meets are ongoing, and live meet results can be found on this link This story will be updated.
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