Photo courtesy of Toni Bishop
By Chris McCarthy, Publisher/Editor
The Southside High boys and boys cross country teams finished in first place at the Class 5A, Section 2 Meet at Oxford’s Choccolocco Park on Nov. 1.
The Panthers had four runners finish in the top 15, led by Ryan Maudsley first-place time of 17:00.05. Mason Williamson took fourth place with a time of 17:32.63, followed by Luke Holcombe in eighth place at 17:54.83, Parker Cunningham in 11th place at 18:02.55 and Hayden Tucker in 14th place at 18:25.64.
Five Lady Panthers had top 10 efforts, led by Camryn Davis’ (pictured above) third place showing of 20:02.87. Lanora Hill came in sixth at 21:32.10, followed by Zoie Menk in ninth at 21:44.76 and Alexis Valentine in 10th at 21:51.90.
Sardis’ Barit Snead came in eighth place (21:37.13) to earn a trip to the state meet.
Every other Southside girl runner placed in the top 30, including Peyton Abernathy (14th, 22:31.36), Taylor Hood (25th, 24:09.64), Mallory Rich (26th, 24:17.67), Adalyn Phillips (27th,
24:20.74), Anna Parker (28th, 24:22.96) and Enslee Clough (30th, 24:25.14).
Posting top 30 finish times for the boys were Anders Dongsgoard (24th, 19:16.12); Max Valentine (27th, 19:21.23); Sam Kilgo (28th, 19:22.09); Will Anglea (29th, 10:23.12) and Andrew Simmons (30th, 19:25.17).
“This was the first race that we had really cold weather and I was a little concerned about how that would affect our lungs,” said coach Kim Nails. “But we had great effort from all of our kids and everyone stepped up and competed. We had to have everyone run their best race, and they did.”