AMERICUS – The Schley County High School Boys Cross Country Team had a good day at the third-annual Furlow Charter Fast Feet Invitational held on Saturday, August 25, at the SCPRD Park located off Highway 19. They finished in second place overall.

Schley County Cross Country Coach Gabe Theiss was extremely pleased with not only the high school boys’ team’s second-place finish, but with how the varsity girls and both the Schley County Middle school boys’ and girls’ teams ran. “The varsity boys ran very well and I was pleased with their times,” Theiss said. “The varsity girls, middle school boys and middle school girls are continuing to get better, but they need to be more consistent at practice to see their times fall.”

In the high school boys race, Schley County’s Aaron Pinckard finished in fourth place with a time of 18:27.89. Pinckard ran this race with a sore ankle. The race was won by Houston County’s Tim Feezor with a time of 17:10.34, almost a full minute ahead of second-place finisher Austin Hemphill of Pike County (18:02.16). “My ankle was just a little tender and my legs were a little tight. I think it was because of weight training,” Pinckard said. “I think I need to heal this ankle, stretch a little bit better and I think I’ll get a better time.”

John Lightner finished in the top-50 in 46th place with a time of 20:41.37. For him, he believes that he started out the race a little too fast. “I went a little too fast at the beginning. That was the mistake I made,” Lightner said. The Wildcats’ Dustin Howard finished in sixth place overall with a time of 18:44.91. Howard’s teammate, Tucker Welch, finished in eight place with a time of 18:53.04, approximately nine seconds off of Howard’s time.

Schley County’s David Williams finished in the top-40 with a time of 20:00.06. Dylan Abair finished just outside the top-50 in 51st place with a time of 20:53.29. Furlow Charter’s Jesse Salazar was right behind Abair, finishing in 52nd place with a time of 20:54.27. Ricky White of Schley County finished in the top-70 in 64th place with a time of 21.29.77. Daniel Iordanov finished in 79th place with a time of 22:07.18. His teammate, Grffin Toms, finished nine seconds behind Iordanov. Toms was neck-in-neck with Cook High School’s Dalton Schramm. “I was so close to the guy (Schramm). All of a sudden, I had to get fired up,” Toms said. “I had to get fired up to pass him and I barely passed him. I was this far away from him, like a few feet.” Toms finished with a time of 22:16.10. Schramm finished with a time of 22:16.28. It was an extremely close battle between the two.

The Wildcats’ Lynton Godwin finished in a time of 22:57.84. Both Tristian Yanez and Andrew James finished four seconds apart. Yanez finished in a time of 23:36.37 and James was right behind him, finishing in a time of 23.40.97. Overall, Yanez was pleased with how he performed. “It was better than most of my races,” Yanez said. When asked what the most difficult part of the race was, Yanez mentioned what several other runners talked about: the hills on the course.

Schley County’s Luis Williams finished in a time of 24:16.24. “The first part of the course was flat, but after the first two miles, it’s straight up hill from there. It was really hard.” Williams said. “It was one of my worst times. If I work harder in practice, maybe I can get a better time.”

Luke Pawlowski finished a little over seven seconds behind Williams with a time of 24:23.99. Right behind Williams was Furlow Charter’s Andrew Kuipers, who finished with a time of 24:24.54. Kuipers teammate, David Lane, finished in a time of 24:41.39.

Schley County’s Landon Moore finished in a time of 26:09.68. Furlow Charter’s Shane Eggers was about three minutes behind Moore, finishing with a time of 29:41.64. Eggers’ teammate, Luke Daniel, finished in a time of 30:38.72. Dillon Eggers was a little less than two seconds off of Daniel’s time. Dillon Eggers finished with a time of 30:40.65. Right behind him was Ashton Engram of Schley County, who finished in a time of 30:56.39. Cody Arizmendi was the next Furlow Charter runner to finish. Arizmendi finished in a time of 31:59.12. Caleb Smith of Schley County finished in a time of 36:48.51.

For Furlow Charter, their best finisher was Jesse Salazar. Salazar finished just outside the top-50 in 52nd place with a time of 20:54.57. His teammate, Zachary Pickle, was the Falcons’ next best finisher with a time of 21:44.07. As a team, the Falcons finished in 14th place overall. “These kids did a good job,” Furlow Charter Varsity Head Coach John Daughey said. “They just need to work on speeding up their pace. It’s going to be a good year.”

For Pickle, what made the race difficult was the amount of people in it. “It was so crowded in the shoot and I saw a couple of falls,” Pickle said. “My strategy was to get a good spot in the shoot and maintain that spot.” For Jesse Salazar, the amount of people in the race also made it difficult for him. “There were just so many people,” Salazar said. “There was also that final hill on the course. I wanted to get a good spot every time I tried to pass someone. I tried to pass someone at least every other minute or so. I was trying to get up to front slowly and slowly climb to the top.” As far as improving his time, Salazar, like several other runners, said he just needs to practice more.

David Lane finished with a time of 24:41.39. For the most part, he was pleased with his time. “My strategy was to stay ahead of a few people on my team and pass people as they came along,” Lane said. For Lane, the time to speed up in the race was close to the two-mile marker and at the hill near the end of the course.

In the varsity girls race, Furlow Charter’s Maya Wynn had the best finish of the area schools that were in the event (Only Schley County and Furlow Charter participated in this event).

Wynn finished in ninth place with a time of 22:59.38, just a little over two seconds behind Anna Chasteen of Pike County (22:57.75). Charlotte Augenstein of Deerfield-Windsor won the race with a time of 19:35.62.  “I think I got a 22:50. It wasn’t my best time. It was actually slower than last week,” Wynn said. Wynn was referring to the race at Marion County a week before. “I think if I could just hold the pace and just work on stride and breathing, that will help. I also think that on Mondays, I should run six miles to get more distance in. Those things will help me improve.”

Schley County’s Kursten Dutcher finished in the top 40 with a time of 27:06.83. Dutcher had the best time of all the Schley County girls’ varsity runners. Her teammate, Kaia MacLennan, finished in a time of 27:47.43. Schley County’s Grace Hardage finished in 50th place with a time of 28:21.90.

Lilly Bacon finished in 63rd place for the Lady Wildcats with a time of 29:28.93. For Bacon, it was not the time she wanted to finish in. “I don’t feel too happy with my score, but I feel it can only improve,” Bacon said. Bacon went on to say that the hilly portion of the course was the hardest part. As one can imagine, this sentiment was echoed by several runners. “It wasn’t easy. I had to keep the motivation to not stop,” Bacon said.

Furlow Charter had two runners finish one behind the other. Angela Uzcategui finished in 83rd place with a time of 32:50.76 and her teammate, Litzy Lepiz, finished right behind Uzcategui with a time of 32:58.77. Furlow Charter’s Talana Holloway finished with a time of 34:18.49 and Rebecca White finished the race with a time of 34:50.56. Overall, the Furlow Charter Lady Falcons finished in eighth place.

In the middle school girls’ race, Schley County Middle School’s Kenadie Philmon finished in the top 30 with a time of 17:42.71. That time was the best time of the two area middle school girls’ teams who competed in the race: Schley County and Furlow Charter. As a team, the Furlow Charter middle school girls finished in 12th place, while Schley County finished in 13th.

Furlow Charter’s best runner in this race was Georgia Eberhart. Eberhart finished in 29th place with a time of 17:47.29. Furlow Charter middle school coach Beth Kinney was pleased with the overall performance of the middle school runners. “I feel like the middle school runners ran well,” Kinney said. “We have a lot that we need to work on. For most of them, it was their first meet they had ever run.” Furlow Charter’s Karen Perez-Juarez finished with a time of 20:50.50. Her teammate, Elizabeth Arizmendi, finished in a time of 21:27.00.

Schley County’s Mary Thomas Smith finished with a time of 22:52.53 in the middle school girls’ race. Her teammates, Kayla Moyle and Crystal Lloyd, finished one behind the other. Moyle finished in a time of 23:07.65 and Lloyd was right behind her, finishing in a time of 23:12.98. For Moyle, she was very pleased with her finishing time. “I feel like I did good because I did better than last time,” Moyle said. “Last time, I finished in 28 minutes or something like that, and today, I got 23.” Moyle went on to say that doing longer strides will help her improve her time. Kenadie Philmon, who had the best time of all the SCMS middle school girls’ runners, was satisfied with her time. As far as what she needed to do to improve on her time, she said “Don’t walk.”

Kennedy Lyles of Furlow Charter finished just under three seconds behind Crytstal Lloyd of Schley County. Lyles ran a time of 23:15.49. Harley Eggers of Schley County finished in a time of 23:36.48, and Furlow Charter’s Erin White finished with a time of 26:43.08. White’s teammate, Julia Walker, finished the race in a time of 31:03.17.

In the middle school boys’ race, Riley Herron of Furlow Charter finished in seventh place with a time of 13:37.87. His teammate, Edwin Gonzalez, finished in 13th place with a time of 13:56.54. Mitch Herron finished right behind Gonzalez in a time of 13:59.43, just under three-seconds difference. Furlow Charter had three runners finish in the top 20 in this race.

Apollo Huss of Furlow Charter finished in 44th place with a time of 16:03.56. Christopher McGrady also finished strong for the Falcons, finishing in a time of 17:13.30. Furlow’s Ian Williams finished in a time of 18:35.95, and Chandler Lyles finished in a time of 19:15.58. Furlow Charter’s Caleb Mathis finished the race in a time of 19:27.21, and Jordan Brown finished a little over 20 seconds behind Mathis with a time of 19:48.95.

The best finisher for Schley County Middle School was Maddox Dukes. Dukes finished in a time of 20:06.84. His teammate, Owen Pawlowski, finished in a time of 20:33.44. Furlow Charter’s Edmund Chen finished the race in a time of 21:04.46. His teammate, Gavin High, finished in a time of 21:44.64. Schley County’s Ethan Sellars finished with a time of 22:42.39, and his teammate, Ethan Bliss, finished the race with a time of 24:33.17.

Furlow Charter runners Wyatt Winters and Heath Holloway finished one behind the other. Winters finished in a time of 25:57.13, and Holloway finished behind Winters with a time of 26:13.25. Schley County’s Rowdy Hines finished the race in a time of 29:02.92.

The Furlow Charter MS boys’ team finished in fifth place overall, while Schley County finished in 15th place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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