Photo: Glencoe High’s Katie Giles crosses the finish line at the St. Clair County Classic 5K last Saturday in Odenville. Giles finished first out of 163 runners. (Chris McCarthy/Messenger)
By Chris McCarthy, Publisher/Editor
Katie Giles fended off a pair of close challengers to win the St. Clair County Invitational 5K last Saturday (Aug. 28) in Odenville.
The Glencoe High junior’s winning time of 21:08.84 was two seconds faster than runner-up Taylor Knight of Ashville (21:10.24), who finished just three-hundreths of a second ahead of White Plains’ Maddyn Conn (21:10.27). It was the second straight victory for Giles, who is the defending Class 3A cross country state champion.
The Lady Yellow Jackets came in second in average time behind White Plains, 24:24.86 to 23:04.88. Southside finished third at 24:45.18.
Local runners who finished in the top 20 were Southside’s Mallory Tucker in 12th place at
(23:26.83), Ashville’s Kathleen McCarthy in 13th place at 23:30.07, Ashville’s Emma Drinkard on 14th place at 23:30.90, Glencoe’s Sarah Ponder in 17th place at 23:52.62 and Southside’s Taylor Dortch in 18th place at 23:54.07.