Cross Country

Best in Class - From Coach Norton: 

On Saturday, Oglethorpe hosted the Best in Class Invitational, the first of 3 home cross country meets, and probably the largest in school history. About 500 runners competed from around the area, including both high schools and middle schools. The Best in Class Invitational is like a regular cross country meet in every way except for how the medals are awarded. Instead of medaling the top overall, the awards are presented by class, so students can see where they stand amongst others their own age. The meet nearly tripled in size since last year with 20 teams competing.

The past couple weeks had delivered several great performances from many of the Varsity runners earning the boys a top 10 state ranking in class AA, but Saturday's race delivered some great performances from JV runners and middle schoolers alike. The Varsity teams didn't have their best day of racing with two boys running injured and another not running at all, but managed to finish in the middle of the pack with Abe Tompkins (19:17) and Quinton Nash (19:35) leading the way. The girls were led by Sarah Chastain (23:37) who had another great run to lead the girls team.

North Oconee swept the team scores in both meets, reminding us how nice it is that they've moved up to class AAA. Individual champion for the Boys was Ross Morris of Hart County and for the girls, Rachel Sigler of North Oconee, who's dad Brady Sigler works at Oglethorpe Middle.

In the JV races, several Oglethorpe boys had great races including Dylan Ballew, Lee Boswell, and Austin Busbin who are all trying to work their way up to the Varsity team. In the middle school races, several boys shined, including 8th grade medal recipient Joel Bencini, 7th grade medal recipient Austin Gabriel, and 6th grade medal winner Jonah McElhaney.

Next up for OC is a tri-meet with Banks County and Riverside this Thursday.