Coffee sweeps Big 5 cross country meet

Becky Taylor, The Tifton Gazette, Ga.
·1 min read

Oct. 9—TIFTON — Coffee Middle School swept the Big 5 Athletic Conference cross country championships Oct. 5, held at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College. Coffee won both team championships and also had the fastest runner in the girls' event, Kellah Smith.

The Lady Trojans won by a single point over Lowndes Middle, 40-41. The Trojans had it slightly easier, posting 30 points to Lowndes' 45. Third place for boys went to Colquitt County at 53 points, with Tift Middle at 107 and Valdosta at 130. Colquitt County was third in the girls' meet, with 68 points and Tift County finished at 79. Valdosta Middle did not enter a girls team.

Hudson Champion ran the course in 11:32 to win individual honors, finishing one second ahead of Lowndes' William Rhoades. Smith's time was in the girls race was 14:15.

Jovia Burke was the fastest for the Lady Devils, finishing in 15:13. The rest of their lineup was Stella Byrnes, Katherine Currie, Bailey Brock, Chloe Gibbs, Jana Webster and Ellie Davies.

Henry Anderson's 13:50 was quickest for the Blue Devils. He was joined on the course by Reid Tubbs, Kellan Lukas, Caleb Thaba, Nolan Miller, Braden Rehberg and Kason Horner.

Schools were limited to seven runners each in the main races. An untimed race afterwards was open to teams' other runners.

A pair of trail horses, Pistol and Leo, led participants on the proper route.