HOME-COURSE FEELING

Greyhounds run to first-place finish, Lady Hounds persevere for runner-up

  • The Greyhounds charge away from the starting line as the field fans out to begin the Greyhound Invitational on Saturday morning. BRAD HARRISON/Staff
    The Greyhounds charge away from the starting line as the field fans out to begin the Greyhound Invitational on Saturday morning. BRAD HARRISON/Staff
  • Freshman Isabella Sanchez navigates the course on the way to a fourth-place finish. BRAD HARRISON/Staff
    Freshman Isabella Sanchez navigates the course on the way to a fourth-place finish. BRAD HARRISON/Staff
  • The Lady Greyhounds placed three finishers in the race’s top 12. BRAD HARRISON/Staff
    The Lady Greyhounds placed three finishers in the race’s top 12. BRAD HARRISON/Staff

    There’s a different emotion that comes with running on a home course. Unlike other meets, the Greyhound Invitational affords the Greyhounds and Lady Greyhounds to run on a course where they probably know the turns and terrains like the back of their hands. Plus, there’s no earlier start thanks to being able to make a short trip from home to the course.

    Running in front of more friends and family than usual, the expectations were raised, and that bar was met on a clear Saturday morning at the course located off of Howard Roberts Road with the Greyhounds winning first and the Lady Greyhounds finishing second in spite of one of their top runners being unable to compete.

    >>SEE MORE PHOTOS FROM THE GREYHOUND INVITATIONAL

    “It was a great crowd; it was big for the kids to see that. It takes a lot of work to put that on, and we have a great group of parents that get things cleaned up and set up,” Jones County head cross country coach Geoff Moore said. “It’s just a good meet for middle Georgia. Lots of places that have meets have them in places like parking lots or around baseball fields. I’d put ours up against everybody’s, and I think a lot of people around are starting the figure that out.”

    The boys race was a showcase of the Greyhounds depth. While teams such as Veterans and Trinity Christian were able to post multiple runners in the top 10, it was the depth of Jones County’s roster that won the day with four of the top 11 finishers donning the purple and gold of JCHS. Taking the second overall finishing spot was Luke Thornton and his pace of 16:36.80. Also coming in with a time below the 17:00 mark was Gavin Robinson’s sixth-place showing of 16:55.01. The next Greyhound in the finishing order was Tyler Marshall in eighth as he ran a 17:13.67 with Grady Newby in 11th with a time of 17:27.14.

    “Veterans’ four and five is not as good as ours, and they’ve been a good program and always have had good runners. That’s a quality AAAAAA program,” Moore said. “It’s about what you do as a team, you need five to seven runners, and we have seven quality kids.”

    Other top finishers for the Greyhounds were Andrew Marshall in 20th, Clay Lacy in 27th and Shaun Williams in 31st with respective times of 17:57.20, 18:17.04 and 18:27.10.

    Williams was among the Greyhounds jumping on the opportunity of ten runners being entered by Jones County in the race, a chance that Moore says he took full advantage of as he finished seventh among the Greyhounds runners on Saturday.

    “I was glad we got to run 10. Shaun Williams had really been looking good in practice and finished seventh for us and set at PR,” Moore said. “It’s a hard course to run a PR on. He’s an up and comer and one who wants to be part of a special group that’s getting better each week.”

    The Lady Greyhounds powered to a second-place finish despite not having one of their top runners able to run on Saturday with another working their way back to fullstrength. Camryn Wommack, one of the Lady Greyhounds top two runners each time out, was unable to take to the course on Saturday. Moore said that she should be able to run by the end of the week, however.

    Even so, Lilly Palmer led the way, finishing third with another JCHS runner right behind her as freshman Isabella Sanchez was fourth. Those times of 20:31.90 and 20:32.70 gave JCHS two finishes inside the top five. Backing up those finishes were Addison Robinson’s 22:29.60 in 12th and Addison Newby coming in 34th with a time of 23:56.60.

    “Our girls have got to get healthy,” Moore said. “Robinson did about what we expected, but we still haven’t run as a full team yet. Our girls are so talented, but we just don’t have a lot of depth; we’ve got to get healthy.”

    Emily Patat persevered to supplement the Lady Greyhounds’ efforts as well, running a 25:22.60 for an overall finish of 48th. Robinson’s showing came as she continues to work her way back from an earlyseason injury.

    “I’m proud of them. They’re really sticking it out,” Moore said. “But we’ve got to have some good luck at some point. It does not matter how good you are, you’ve got to get healthy.”

    In the combined JV race, the Greyhounds dominated, easily winning by taking seven of the top 10 finishing positions.

    In fact, three Greyhound runners ran sub-20:00 times in the JV boys race, led by Gunner Kent’s 19:24.14 to come in second ahead of Chase Hamm in third and RJ Bryant in fourth via times of 19:36.48 and 19:52.90. Connor Monile’s run of 20:04.20 was good for fifth in front of Kristjan Adams, Colin Bray and Connor Peterson in sixth and seventh with times of 20:04.20, 20:34.37 and 20:35.04.

    The Lady Hounds finished second in the JV race, led by Riley Barnwell running a 27:16.63 to finish ninth with Sage Ward coming in 11th to finish 28:48.97. Taylor Minter ran a 29:08.95 to claim a finish of 13th. Other top JV girls finishes were Kendell Collins in 19th and Grace Bryant in 23rd with times of 31:50.18 and 32:50.05.