Heritage harriers claim 6th straight title in runaway

By JEFF GILLESPIE
jeff.gillespie@rockdalecitizen.com 

CONYERS – The Heritage cross country teams flirted with perfection in the Rockdale County Championship on Wednesday at the Georgia International Horse Park.
The Patriots’ squads combined for a team score of 31 points to claim the county crown for the sixth straight year – finishing only one point away from a perfect score of 30. Rockdale was second overall with 98, while Salem was third at 141. 
Led by senior David Sanders’ 50-second victory, the Heritage boys swept the top in their race to set a meet record with 15 points. Rockdale was second (50) and Salem was third (75).
In the girls race, Jenna Kimble’s four-second win paced the Lady Patriots, who came within two seconds of a top-five sweep. Heritage finished with 16 points followed by Rockdale (48) and Salem (66). 
“It’s just a testament of how hard these kids work through the summer, the first part of the school year and into September,” said Heritage coach Brian Smith. “As a group, these kids don’t quit. They come to practice every day and work hard. It really shows out here.
“We knew coming in we had a good shot at a top-five sweep. We weren’t sure, because there’s always surprises race to race. We set that as one of our goals. To get 15, that’s the first time we’ve ever done it, especially the guys. The girls have been really close a couple times.” 
In the boys race, Sanders claimed his second straight county individual title with a time of 18:19, which was 42 seconds faster than last year. The Patriots followed with David Tarr in second (19:09), Robert Gray in third (19:45), Derek Wu in fourth (19:58) and Isaiah Fouts in fifth (20:16).
Brian Lunsford was Rockdale’s top finisher in sixth (20:27) followed by Heritage’s Ken Clingenpeel in seventh (20:37), Heritage’s Chase Bradley in eighth (20:38), Heritage’s Michael Gunter in ninth (20:39) and Rockdale’s Cody Leblanc in 10th (20:54).
Taylor Boggus in 14th (21:22), Carsten Singh in 15th (21:28) and Tim Van Heest in 18th (21:35) completed Rockdale’s top five.
Salem’s top finisher was Christopher Reed in 17th (21:33) followed by Kevin Dakin in 20th (21:37), J.D. Carter in 21st (21:50), Craig Russell in 22nd (21:54) and Ian Carraway in 32nd (23:41).
In the girls meet, Kimble battled with teammates Soibhan Wolcott and Erin Fahey as the top three finished within eight seconds of each other. Kimble claimed the title at 22:02, followed by Wolcott at 22:06 and Fahey at 22:10.
Heritage’s Lauren Herrington was fourth (22:35) followed by Rockdale’s Carys Fincher in fifth (23:32), Heritage’s Katie Ginnane in sixth (23:34), Heritage’s Chelsea Kimble in seventh (24:00), Heritage’s Lindsay Wells in eighth (24:23), Rockdale’s Kayla Johnson in ninth (25:05) and Heritage’s Heather Dunn (25:39) in 10th.
Katie Johnson in 13th (26:07), Ailcia Bellis in 14th (26:37) and Jenna Williamson in 21st (28:53) completed Rockdale’s top five.
“We’ve come a long way. I’ve been really proud of the kids’ effort. We’ve been really working hard, and they’ve been seeing results. We’ve improved every single meet,” said Rockdale coach Chad Suddeth. “We’ve got to work on finishing things off to beat teams like Heritage, because they’re just so strong.”
Katie Pulliam posted the top finish for Salem in 15th at 27:22. The Lady Seminoles competed without the services of their top runner Rachel Lamb, who is out with knee and ankle ailments. Lauren King in 24th (30:48), Kelly Beavers in 25th (31:41), Nicole DeLuca in 27th (33:06) and Cynshen Hu in 28th (33:32) rounded the Lady Seminoles’ top five.
“I was happy with our effort. I wanted everybody to just improve on their times,” said Salem coach Heather Hartley. “We missed Rachel, but she’s saving herself for the region meet. Craig Russell and Christopher Reed were two nice surprises from our young runners.”