Deerfield-Windsor shines at Patriot Pride Invitational

ROCHELLE — Deerfield-Windsor’s Garrison Slaughter won the boys 5K cross country race Saturday at the Patriot Pride Invitational in Rochelle and the DWS teams took either first or second in each of the four divisions.

Slaughter had the best time of the day, 16 minutes, 29 seconds, which was 30 seconds ahead of Worth County’s Eyan Zupko, who finished second. The Lady Knights, led by senior Jane Stickland, took second place, while the DWS middle school girls took first and the middle school boys placed second.

Slaughter led three other DWS runners to cross in the top eight — freshman Jack Morre finished in fifth, junior Jackson Belusko took seventh and sophomore Ethan Newsome crossed in eighth. Michael Collins finished the scoring for DWS in 24th place. That gave the Knights 45 points to win the team spot, ahead of Cook with 85 in second, Georgia Military Prep in third, Berrien County in fourth and Worth County in fifth.

Abbie Brown of Fitzgerald won the girls race ahead of two runners from Valwood. Strickland’s fifth place finish led DWS with Sophie Singleton in 12th place and Molly Fuller in 13th. Anabelle Scott (18th) and Lily Kate Castle (19th) finished the scoring for the Lady Knights.

Valwood took the top team spot for the girls with 53 points and Deerfield-Windsor was a close second with 58 points. Berrien County placed third, Cook took fourth and Fitzgerald placed fifth.

DWS 8th-grader Mangham Pippin won the middle school boys race with Grady Meier of Georgia Military Prep in second. Jordan Jantz, a sixth-grader at DWS, finished second for the Knights in 13th place and teammate Daniel Roland placed 20th for DWS, while Whatley Fountain (30th) and Millis Cothern (31st) finished the scoring for the middle school Knights.

The Cook Middle School boys won the division with 74 points and Deerfield-Windsor was second with 95. Ben Hill Middle placed third.

Dileta Hunlen of Pulaski Middle won the girls middle school race, but four Deerfield-Windsor girls were close behind. Margret Hodges crossed second and teammate Ada Hunt finished four seconds later. Macy Hatcher took fifth place for the Lady Knights and Reynolds Bryson crossed in sixth. Maggie Collins crossed the line in 17th place to finish the scoring for the Lady Knight middle-schoolers.

DWS finished with 32 points for the top spot and Georgia Military Prep was second with 81 points.

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