TCHS Runs Well At State

Courtesy of TCHS

The Toombs County High School boys and girls Cross Country teams competed in the GHSA State Championships this past Saturday in Carrollton.

Boys

In the boys' race, the boys ran well and finished strong with a 16th overall finish. Leading the way for the boys was freshman Juan Luna. Luna has set the pace for the boys team all season, and ran a PR time of 17:35, good for 17th overall in a boys race that had 209 finishers. Freshman Victor Valentine was 2nd on the team with a 19:59. Sophomore Moises Young was 3rd with a 20:11, followed by Senior Augustin Cruz with a 20:55 and Freshman Roberto Itzep with a 21:00. Sophomore Daniel Santoyo was in 6th with a 21:06 and Junior Jahir Lopez was the 7th runner with a 23:41. TCHS Coach Jeremy Moore said, “I am so proud of the guys this year. It has been a tough last few seasons for the guys with us not qualifying for State. It was great to run well late in the season and do well enough to qualify this year. We have an overall extremely young group, with great 8th and 7th grade groups that will be coming up soon, so the future is really good for the boys' program. I am also happy for our one Senior, Augustin Cruz. This kid stuck with it, when a lot of his classmates decided to not run and he has been instrumental in leading this year’s group back to State.”

Girls

In the girls' race, the “pack of 3,” all finished well. Sophomore Mareli Luna finished with a 24:54, Freshman Deanna Gonzalez was right behind her with a 24:55, and Junior Noelia Nevarez was 3rd for the team with a 25:03. Juniors Maritza Zamorano and Josseline Zamorano ran 28:06 and 29:20 respectively, to bring in 4th and 5th for the girls.

Coach Moore added, “Just like with the boys, I cannot say how proud I am of these girls. Through summer workouts, we thought we had a really strong group, with a good chance to challenge for 2nd in the region again. We lost 2 runners to injuries during the season, and that really dropped us in the Region rankings. These 5 girls continued to show up each week and work to get better. With 5 runners, there is no margin for error, and every one of these girls ran strong at the Region Meet to qualify us for State, and had great showings at the State Meet. We have a girls group with no seniors, and if we can get everyone healthy for next fall, I think we have a chance to make a great run in the Region and at the State meet.”