Tuscaloosa News All-Area high school boys and girls cross country teams for 2022
The Tuscaloosa News All-Area cross country teams for 2022 are highlighted by Northridge's Mary Mac Collins and American Christian Academy's Cole Byers as girls and boys runners of the year, respectively.
Byers helped to lead ACA to the 5A state championship after the Patriots moved up from 4A. The Patriots edged former 6A school Scottsboro by 16 points behind Byers' third-place finish. The Patriots had six runners inside the top 25.
Going into the state meet, the numbers had the Patriots and Scottsboro basically even through their top runners. The meet came down to the team's depth, with ACA's fifth runner coming in 11 places higher than Scottsboro's fifth runner. The Patriots rebounded from finishing second last season.
"They did exactly what they needed to do, which was exciting," coach Charles Tiller said. "Last year, it didn't work out. We had kind of the same instructions, but this year they learned from their experience last year, stepped up and took care of business, so I'm extremely excited for them.
The Holy Spirit Catholic girls and ACA girls earned top-10 team finishes. Northridge finished as the No. 11 team in 6A behind Collins, now like Byers a three-time honoree as runner of the year.
Boys All-Area first team
Braden Ary, junior, American Christian Academy
Reason chosen: Ary finished fourth in the AHSAA Class 5A finals and had a personal best of 15:54 earlier in the season.
Stephen Billman, junior, American Christian Academy
Reason chosen: Billman ran a personal best of 16:34 en route to a 12th-place finish in the state race.
Cole Byers, sophomore, American Christian Academy
Reason chosen: The Tuscaloosa News boys runner of the year earned a third-place finish in the Class 5A finals with a time of 16:00 and set a Patriots record earlier in the season with a time of 15:52.
Robert Englebert, senior, Paul W. Bryant
Reason chosen: Engelbert earned a top-15 finish in the Class 6A finals with a time of 16:51.
Carson Renicks, junior, American Christian Academy
Reason Chosen: Renicks finished seventh at state and ran a personal best of 16:09 earlier in the season.
Anglin Young, freshman, Northridge
Reason Chosen: Young ran a personal best of 16:41 at the Northridge Invitational and finished 20th in Class 6A at state.
Boys second team
Dylan Jones, junior, American Christian Academy
Logan McPherson, junior, American Christian Academy
Shawn Stephenson, freshman, Northridge
Jaylen Reed, senior, Demopolis
Nigel Senkbeil, Holy Spirit Catholic
Girls All-Area first team
Mary Mac Collins, senior, Northridge
Reason chosen: The Tuscaloosa News girls runner of the year had a personal best of 17:31 and finished second in the state in AHSAA Class 6A, for her third straight top-three finish at state.
Lilly Gould, freshman, Northridge
Reason chosen: Gould ran a personal best of 20:58 this season and finished 57th at the Class 6A finals.
Lucy Guthrie, sophomore, ACA
Reason chosen: Guthrie finished in sixth place in the 5A finals and ran a personal best of 19:08 earlier in the season.
Karis Kelley, junior, ACA
Reason chosen: Kelly finished inside the top 20 at state and ran a personal best of 20:03 earlier in the season.
Katelyn Patton, eighth grade, Northside
Reason chosen: Patton finished inside the top 40 in Class 4A and had a personal best of 21:31 earlier in the season.
Anna Pezent, freshman, University Charter
Reason Chosen: Pezent finished third in Class 1A-2A with a time of 21:08.
Girls second team
Dani Blakely, junior, Northridge
Linley Byars, junior, Northridge
Miriam Dominguez, senior, Demopolis
Hannah Kinney, senior, Holy Spirit Catholic
Audrey Spillers, seventh grade, Winfield
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Tuscaloosa News All-Area high school cross country teams
