Richmond Hill senior Memphis Rich showed why he’s the defending individual Class 7A cross country champion as he won his third straight region title last Wednesday at Valdosta, leading the Wildcats to an easy win in the Region 1 meet.
Rich covered the 5,000-meter race in 16:02.60 to lead a Wildcats onslaught which saw Richmond Hill runners claim six of the top seven finishes. With the low five times counting toward the team score, coach Levi Sybert’s team had 17 points to easily outpace second-place Lowndes which had 49.
Noah Sybert took second in 16:31.10 and he was followed by Benjamin Hall in third, Carter Dietrich in fifth, Eddie Howell in sixth and Elijah Fitts in seventh. It was the 11th straight region championship for the boys.
Richmond Hill’s girls won their 12th consecutive region championship in similar fashion thanks to first and second place finishes, respectively, by freshman Julia Anastasio and junior Julia Wilson. Anastasio ran a 19:33.80 time while Wilson came in at 20:14.40. Adeline Althen was fifth, Kyle Kitchens-Hayes was sixth, Alannah Bowling was seventh, Abigail Stahl was eighth and Carlee Hodges was 11th as the Wildcats had 21 points with Lowndes second with 48.
Bryan County’s boys and girls teams also qualified for the Class A-D1 state meet which will be held Nov. 4 at Carrollton. The 7A meet will be run Nov. 5.
The girls, thanks to outstanding performances from sophomore Laney Sehr and freshman Abigail Stucker, took third in their meet held at Screven County while the boys grabbed fourth.
Sehr ran a 24:30.44 to take second and Stucker crossed the line in 24:58.39 to grab third. Haley Thomas finished eighth, Delilah Champion was 22nd and Jada Haggray was 26th.
The future looks bright for the girls program as Thomas is a junior while Champion and Haggray are sophomores.
Sophomore Will Summford paced the boys’ efforts as he took sixth in 20:41.03. Rodney Johnson was ninth, John Roberson was 13th, Luke Hannah was 26th, Trevor Wells was 28th, Andrew Long was 29th and Daxwell Carrera was 33rd.