Deerfield-Windsor cross country teams excel in Bob Blastow meet

WHITESBURG — The Deerfield-Windsor cross country teams traveled to the Atlanta area this past weekend to compete in the Bob Blastow 2022 Early Bird Race with hundreds of runners on site.

Deerfield-Windsor’s Garrison Slaughter finished fourth in the boys race out of 176 competitors. DWS freshman Jack Moore wasn’t far behind in 15th place and the Knights finished sixth as a team against some of the largest high schools in Georgia.

The Lady Knights excelled as well. Jane Strickland led the Lady Knights with a 10th place finish and freshman Anna Chapman crossed the line a minute later in 12th place, while Sophie Singleton placed 16th. The DWS girls finished second in the team rankings, behind McIntosh High School (Peachtree City), which had six of the top eight finishers. Brookstone of Columbus, a fellow GIAA competitor for DWS, finished third in the girls team rankings.

“We pride ourselves on training hard and racing fast,” said Deerfield-Windsor head coach Jake Clawson. “This group put in a solid summer and I think that they’re setting themselves up for some strong performances later in the season. We also make it a point to travel up to Atlanta to run in these big meets as much as we can. It’s humbling to be buried in a 200-person field full of fast kids.

“If they can learn to compete against big fields full of fast teams, we’ll hopefully be able to respond to the pressure of competing at the state meet in late October.”

Jackson Belusko (38), Ethan Newsome (50), and Michael Collins (77) finished the scoring for the Knights in the boys race. Lily Kate Castle (21) and Annabelle Scott (22) finished the scoring for the Lady Knights.

Competing against high school-aged runners, DWS eighth-grader Mangham Pippin finished eighth, a minute behind the winner. In the JV girls race, DWS eighth grader Margret Hodges crossed the line in sixth place, less than two minutes behind the winner.

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