Local teams shine at first YMCA Cross Country Invitational

ALBANY — More than 400 runners descended on the YMCA Sports Park on Gillionville Road Saturday for the first YMCA Cross Country Invitational.

The local runners made sure they weren’t lost in the crowd.

Sherwood Christian’s Kaylee Hatcher won the girls race, teammate Natnael Russell finished second in the boys race, Deerfield-Windsor captured the girls team championship and Worth County finished third in a tightly contested boys team race.

In fact, the first three runners across the finish line in the boys race represented the top three teams.

Lowndes’ River Thurston led the way, winning the individual championship by 15 seconds over Russell. Ten seconds later, Worth County’s Colton Letchworth crossed the finish line in third.

Those finishes offered a preview of the team standings.

Lowndes won with 40 points, followed by Sherwood Christian with 56 and Worth County with 68.

Sherwood’s strength went well beyond Russell’s runner-up finish.

Sam Moorehead finished seventh, Thompson Bennett was 14th, KJ Bevel finished 16th and Andrew Bridges came home 20th to complete the Eagles’ scoring five.

Worth County countered with a strong group behind Letchworth. Payton Creamer finished 12th, Noah Johnson was 15th, Daydreon Hunt 19th and Shane Thompson 23rd.

Deerfield-Windsor’s Thomas Taylor gave Albany another runner near the front, finishing fourth overall.

The Knights finished with 172 points, but that number came with an asterisk. Deerfield coach Jake Clawson elected to rest most of his top runners Saturday, choosing instead to continue training after gathering valuable early-season data from last week’s race.

The girls race turned into an Albany battle.

Sherwood Christian had the individual champion.

Deerfield-Windsor had the pack.

Hatcher led the field to capture the individual title, while Sherwood teammate Jordyn Ban gave the Lady Eagles two runners among the first four finishers.

But Deerfield’s depth ultimately made the difference in the team race.

The Lady Knights packed all five of their scoring runners inside the top 15.

Sophie Logan led Deerfield in eighth place, followed by Allie Roland in 10th. Maggie Collins finished 13th, Ann Margret Barrow was right behind her in 14th and Holli Roland completed the scoring in 15th.

Five runners.

Eight places separating them.

That was enough to give Deerfield-Windsor the team championship.

Sherwood continued scoring with Sarah Postlewaite in 18th, McKenna Mingo in 19th and Macy Hatcher in 22nd.

For an event making its debut, Saturday’s meet brought a sizable field to Albany with more than 400 runners competing at the YMCA Sports Park.

And Southwest Georgia’s runners took advantage of the opportunity.

A Sherwood runner won an individual championship. Another finished second. Deerfield-Windsor took home a team title. Worth County earned a top-three team finish.

For the first YMCA Cross Country Invitational, the home teams made quite a first impression.