Anna Plowden, Westover girls excel at region cross country meet

ALBANY — Anna Plowden and the Westover girls led the local finishers at the Region 1-AAAA Cross Country Championships, held Saturday at Robert Cross Middle School in Albany.

Plowden was second individually with a 5K time of 22 minutes, 31 seconds. The senior’s finish helped the Patriots to a total of 41 points, only two points off Thomas County Central’s winning total.

She was backed up by Jada Landers (seventh, 23:53), Destiny Love (ninth, 24:32), Nina Daniel (11th, 24:44), Jayda Clark (12th, 25:49), DeAnna Cunningham (16th, 27:07) and Skye Johnson (17th, 27:35).

Monroe’s girls also qualified for state with a fourth-place finish, led by Marianna Wright. Wright was third in 23:06. She backed up by teammates Jurdyn Johnson (13th, 26:30), Traniya Miller (22nd, 33:05), Sariyah Wright (26th, 36:17) and Telia Hale (27th, 36:52).

Dougherty’s placing girls runners were De’Asia Simmons was 25th (35:59), Jaqueline Buchannon (28th, 38:02) and Mirisha Hawkins (29th, 39:32).

Westover’s boys, with a fourth-place finish, qualified for state with top finishes from Joshua Paustain in ninth at 20:22 and Xavier Mallory in 19th at 21:45. The Patriots got support from Eric Barber (28th, 24:16), Rodrick Young (29th, 24:49), Zion Clark (30th, 25:11) and Edison Vicente (31st, 25:17)

Monroe’s Marcus Cowart was 18th in 21:11 and Dougherty’s Jahaven Brown was 25th 23:12. Monroe also got top-30 finishes from Nigel Green (26th, 23:15) and Alonzo Mulberry (27th, 24:00), along with a 34th-place finish from Braillen Wright (34th, 31:45). Dougherty’s other placers were Dontrell Hodge (32nd, 30:28) and Lamarian Harris (33rd, 31:42).