Deerfield-Windsor Invitational draws top cross country teams; host boys win title

ALBANY — More than 1,000 runners from 40 schools descended onto the campus of Albany State West Saturday morning for the annual Deerfield-Windsor Invitational and the host Knights took first place in the boys team competition while the girls placed third.

In the middle school race, Cook Middle School took the top spot for the boys with Lee County third and Deerfield-Windsor fifth. Bainbridge won the girls competition with Deerfield-Windsor in second place.

Crisp County sophomore Sawyer McGinnis outran the boys field for first place in the varsity boys competition. McGinnis finished the race in a time of 16 minutes, 35:07 seconds, just three seconds ahead of Lee County’s Tim Ellis. Deerfield-Windsor’s Garrison Slaughter crossed the finish line in third place with a time of 16:53 and Worth County’s Eyan Zupko came in fourth. Zupko won the Lee County Invitational last week.

Deerfield-Windsor took the top spot in team honors with 46 points, with Cook in second (109), Tift County in third (129), Mount De Sales (134) fourth, and Worth County (159) fifth.

Team scores are based on the top five finishers from each team and the Knights of Deerfield-Windsor put all five top finishers in the top 20. Slaughter was third, followed by Jack Moore in sixth, Ethan Newsome in eighth, Jackson Belusko 11th and Harper Buntin 19th.

Georgy Helmers of St. Anne Pacelli left the rest of the girl’s field behind, winning in a time of 19:17:30. Finishing second, almost a minute after Helmers was Lakeside’s Chloe Helms. The highest finisher for Albany area schools was Deerfield-Windsor’s Macy Hatcher who placed ninth.

Brookstone of Columbus won the girl’s team title with 43 points. St. Anne Pacelli was second with 52 and Deerfield-Windsor was third with 93. Valwood (120) came in fourth and Lee County (142) was fifth.

Making up Deerfield-Windsor’s team score were Hatcher in ninth, Jane Strickland in 12th place, Margaret Hodges (21st), Molly Fuller (28th), and Sophie Singleton in 29th. Annabelle Scott was right there, too, in 30th.

Landon Ray of Cook won the JV race, just ahead of Deerfield-Windsor’s Ward Wright. The JV girls were led by Brookstone’s Lizzie Bickerstaff and Molly Robinson in first and second, respectively. Deerfield-Windsor’s Lily Urick and Faith Chung finished third and fourth.

Brandon Young of Crisp County took top honors in the boy’s middle school race with Lee County’s Johnny Vanderwalt in second place. Crisp County’s Lana Bray won the girl’s middle school race, just ahead of Deerfield-Windsor’s Ada Hunt and Sophia Logan.

Special Photo: Joe Whitfield