One after another, a box on a proverbial checklist has been marked off over the course of the cross country season for the Greyhounds.
The latest one came with the leaving of a heavy mark on Saturday at the Jones County Cross Country Course, as the Greyhounds’ senior-laden roster dominated in winning both the region and sectional titles, placing four runners in the sectional’s top 10 in addition to six of the top nine places in the region.
The region crown is the fourth in a row for the Greyhounds. But despite that laurel of glory, Jones County is not finished.
There’s one more thing left to do for this group of runners that have run with and pushed one another throughout their careers. That’s to run for a state title at Friday’s GHSA Class AAAA meet in Carrollton.
“It was just a good day. They handled it like you’d expect seniors to. All you can do is have a chance, and we have that,” Jones County head coach Geoff Moore said. “There are four teams, and the one that shows up has the best chance. I think we have one of the best teams. All you can do is be thankful you have the talent because it is rare to go up there and have a shot like this.”
If Jones County runs anything like it did on Saturday morning — easily beating teams like Pace Academy, Starr’s Mill, and Harris County — it stands to have a strong chance to contend for, if not win, a state title.
“Those are two of the top four teams in the state. We ran with them and beat them,” Moore said. “Now, the hay’s in the barn, and it comes down to having your best effort.”
With four runners placing inside the sectional’s top 15 on Saturday, the Greyhounds were able to take care of business, taking first led by the seventhplace showing by Luke Thornton, also the region runner-up, with a time of 16:03.95, one of four runners with a time below 16:37.00.
As good as that result was, Moore said a bit more was held in reserve, for good reason, given that the state meet is this Friday.
“He sacrificed a region title to save more for this weekend,” Moore said.
Gavin Robinson finished fourth in the region and ninth in the sectional on a run of 16:18.36 in front of Shaun Williams’ 10th-place overall of 16:18.43 that took fifth in the region. Tyler Marshall’s 16:36.55 gave him a sectional finish of 15th and sixth in the region. Clay Lacy claimed seventh in the region and 21st overall on a run of 17:00.56 in front of the 17:15.85 by Grady Newby, who was ninth in the region and 26th overall. Rylan Fuller was 14th among region runners and 44th overall with a time of 17:51.09.
The Greyhounds were led by the boys JV race by Ian Borsahole in seventh along with Dalton Russell, Tripp Arnold and Lane Schomber, who finished 17th, 37th, and 38th.
