Heritage girls claim third place

By JEFF GILLESPIE Sports Editor
jeff.gillespie@rockdalecitizen.com

CONYERS – The Heritage girls posted a third-place team finish in the big school division at the 80-team Patriot Invitational on Saturday at the Georgia International Horse Park.
The Lady Patriots – led by sophomore Soibhan Wolcott’s 15th-place finish – tallied 136 team points to finish third in the division featuring Class AAAAA and Class AAAA squads. 
Lakeside-DeKalb, ranked No. 2 in the state in the all-classification rankings, won the event. The Class AAAAA squad had five runners in the top 11 and tallied 39 points.
Eagle’s Landing, which is No. 7 in the all-classification rankings, took second with 127 points and had the event’s individual champion in Sara Orendorff, who finished with a time of 20:17. The Lady Eagles finished only nine points ahead of Heritage.
Freshman Lauren Herrington finished 24th (22:01) and junior Jenna Kimble was next in 25th (22:02) for the Lady Patriots. Sophomore Erin Fahey was 37th (22:23) and freshman Chelsea Kimble completed the Lady Patriots’ top five in 51st (22:48). Junior Lindsay Wells was one second behind in 53rd.
“In the girls, we were in the 5-A and 4-A division with some of the top-ranked teams in the state. We finished third about 10 points behind Eagle’s Landing, which is great,” said Heritage coach Brian Smith. “A lot of the girls really had outstanding performances. Lauren Herrington had a huge jump, and our five and six runners, Chelsea and Lindsay, made large strides, too, by dropping about two minutes.
“They’re starting to realize what it takes to run and compete in the state. They just continue to progress and improve. I’m extremely proud of them. It was one of our goals – to finish pretty high in this event.”
The Lady Patriots finished ahead of all their Region 8-AAAA competitors and easily outdistanced the next closest Class AAAA team St. Pius in eighth with 229 points. 
McEachern (177) and Milton (181) rounded out the top five. Oconee County was sixth (182), Kennesaw Mountain was seventh (182), McIntosh was ninth (302) and Chamblee was 10th (336).
Rockdale sophomore Carys Fincher cracked the top 35 with a 32nd-place finish with a time of 22:18. She helped the Lady Bulldogs finish in 22nd with 580 points – which was third among Region 8-AAAA squads, trailing only Heritage and Winder-Barrow in 18th (496).
Kayla Johnson in 100th (24:02), Katie Johnson in 147th (25:34), Alicia Bellis in 167th (26:36) and Jenna Williamson in 186th (27:44) completed Rockdale’s top five.
Salem, Eastside and Newton did not enter complete girls teams. Katie Pulliam was the Lady Seminoles’ top finisher in 138th at 25:14. Anne Crabb paced the Lady Eagles in 161st (26:01) and Summer Whittington was Newton’s top finisher in 184th (27:33).

In the big school boys race, Heritage entered only its top runner – senior David Sanders – who posted the area’s top performance with a 27th-place finish (17:57) in a strong field.
Rockdale (783) and Newton (790) produced the top local team finishes in 27th and 28th. The Rams’ Centrell Delamar finished in 63rd overall (18:31) and the Bulldogs’ Cody Leblanc (19:08) placed in 101st.
Salem’s only two runners – J.D. Carter and Craig Russell – finished 158th (20:29) and 160th (20:30). Eastside’s top finisher was Zach Owens in 195th (21:31).
Starr’s Mill won the big school boys race with 73 points followed by McEachern (98), Milton (147), Lakeside-DeKalb (149) and Lovett (192). South Gwinnett’s Ryley Miller was the individual winner in 16:05 – posting the top time of the day.
In Region 8-AAAA, Habersham Central had the top team finish in eighth (228) followed by Clarke Central in 12th (325) and Winder-Barrow in 17th (462).
In the small school races (Classes AAA-A), Franklin Road Academy from Tennessee won the boys race with 99 points – beating Our Lady of Mercy by nine points. 
Pace Academy’s Yow Lawson was the individual winner in 16:48.
In the girls race, Holy Innocents’ Haley Kolff (20:46) edged Providence’s Allison Kreutzer by one second to claim the individual title. Wesleyan cruised to a 31-point victory over Lovett for the team crown.