The cross country county championships were held

at Sandy Creek High School last Thursday. McIntosh,

Fayette County, Starr's Mill and Sandy Creek competed in the race.

All of the teams had ran the course a few weeks earlier during

the Sandy Creek Invitational and the runners were now

comfortable with the nuances of the course.

The McIntosh girls, ranked second in the state, won the race

with an overall score of 19. Two of their top five runners, Dana

Van Winkle and Judy Thomasson, sat out to nurse some nagging

injuries before this weekend's regional meet in LaGrange. The

top runners for the Chiefs were Elizabeth Gardner and Mary

Katherine Crofton, each running their personal best race of the year,

finishing in first and second place with times of 18:46 and

19:37 respectively. Tina Paone finished in third place with a time of

19:43, Connie Gaan finished in sixth place with a time of 20:25

and Jamie Hyatt finished in ninth place with a time of 20:50.

The boys of McIntosh, ranked ninth in the state, won the

race with an overall score of 23. Their top two runners, Geoff

Melymuk and Kevin Panke, finished first and second and broke the

school's record for best time set last year by Melymuk, with times of

15:33 and 15:45 respectively. Nick Van Winkle, Robby Johnston

and Matt O'Donnell finished fifth, seventh and eighth with times

of 16:50, 17:15 and 17:18. Those times were their personal best

of the season. Coach Buckle is pleased with how both squads

are running right now and hopes that it is a good sign for the

region meet this weekend. The girls have only lost the region meet

once since 1988 and the boys have won the region meet the last

three years in a row.

The Fayette County girls and boys finished in second place

on Thursday with overall scores of 54 and 56. Jessica Tyre took

fifth place for the girls with a time of 20:25, while Carrie Howard

finished 10th with a time of 21:22. Dana Teat finished 14th with

a time of 21:44 and Clarinda Phillips and Heather

Brown rounded out the top five finishing in 18th and 19th place

respectively with times of 22:03 and 22:23.

Preston Pack and Blake Riley finished in third and fourth

place in the boys race with times of 16:39 and 16:41. Tre

Alverson took 10th place finishing at 17:24 while John Riley finished in

17th place with a time of 17:45. David Dearing rounded out the top

five for the Tigers, finishing in 31st place with a time of 18:10.

Coach Phillips is pleased with his teams performance as everyone's

times continue to drop. He feels that his boys pack could be

competitive against the McIntosh boys while the girls squad is more

competitive with Lovejoy. Pack and Riley have a shot to make an

individual bid for the state meet this weekend in LaGrange.

The 4-AAAA regional meet will be run at Pine Road Park

in LaGrange on Saturday morning. The park is 3-4 miles

down Roanoke Road on the left hand side. The girls race will begin

at 9:30 am and the boys race follows at 10. It promises to be an

exciting race and the weather should be ideal for running.

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