Almost a season’s worth of building momentum is nearly over for the Greyhounds on the cross country course.
Meet after meet, they have proven to be among the state’s best, and that was backed up at Saturday’s Coach Wood Invitational that welcomed the state’s top competitors.
The Greyhounds answered the call, placing fourth overall in the event’s championship race. That ranked them as the top AAAA team in meet, finishing behind teams such as Brookwood and West Forsyth, regarded as some of the state’s elite regardless of classification.
Within that heated competition, Luke Thornton was 20th for Jones County at 15:38.19, one of two Greyhounds running sub-16-minute times with Gavin Robinson in 32nd at 15:53.39. Shaun Williams timed in 46th at 16:07.72 in front of Tyler Marshall in 61st (16:18.59).
Grady Newby in 86th (16:32.52), Clay Lacy in 99th (16:40.40), and Rylan Fuller in 174th (17:29.04).
Now there’s only one thing left to do — get ready for the Nov. 1 GHSA sectionals in Gray that will crown region champions and qualify teams and runners for the Nov. 7 AAAA state meet in Carrollton.
“They competed well. It was an awesome race. They’re getting viewed as premiere program. We just have some tweaking to do,” Jones County head coach Geoff Moore said. “We’re exactly where we want to be. We’ve improved since last year, but these other teams have, too. It all comes down to what team has it the second weekend of November.”
Remarkably, the Greyhounds’ top-five finish came as one of their top five runners, Newby, was slowed by injury.
Between now and sectionals, to say that avoiding injuries and illnesses is important is an understatement.
“It affects runners more because you are using all of your system,” Moore said.
“There is no skill or luck in it. You use all of your body’s energy, so if your system is not 100 percent healthy, it’s devastating.”
Either way, the drive to finish the season among the state’s best is nearly hear for a senior-laden team.
“A lot of years, we’ve had a case where we wish we had one more guy, but these are the six or seven kids that I’d rather have than any other else,” Moore said.
“We just have to ride the momentum and keep them fresh and healthy.”
The Lady Hounds rolled away from the weekend zeroing in on their preseason goal as well on the heels of a thirdplace finish in the event’s varsity race.
Jones County, which began the season decimated by attrition, is in position to contend for a region title and qualify for state at sectionals.
Addison Robinson ran to a fifth-place finish on a time of 19:40.78 with other top times from JCHS from Tanner Watts in 29th at 21:15.86 and Mary Barnwell at 21:19.88, two runners working their way back from illness. Macie White took 41st on a time of 21:39.59 with Makenzie Snook’s 22:29.21 being good for 69th.
Saylor Bell’s PR time of 23:01.28 took 94th with the effort also being bolstered by Catelen Myers in 104th (23:27.62) and Allie Waters in 146th (24:29.65).
“They have a really good shot at region. After all that we lost, that’s been their goal,” Moore said.
