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Columbia Academy takes team titles at Maury County Championships





The Maury County Championships cross country meet took place Sept. 27 at Ring Farm in Columbia, with Columbia Academy’s boys and girls sweeping the high school team titles and CA’s Josh Lofton taking boys individual honors. Columbia Central’s Lillian Quinn won the girls high school competition.MAURICE PATTON / MAIN STREET MAURY

The Maury County Championships cross country meet took place Sept. 27 at Ring Farm in Columbia, with Columbia Academy’s boys and girls sweeping the high school team titles and CA’s Josh Lofton taking boys individual honors. Columbia Central’s Lillian Quinn won the girls high school competition.MAURICE PATTON / MAIN STREET MAURY

Columbia Academy’s boys and girls swept the Maury County Championships high school team titles Tuesday at Ring Farm, with Bulldog sophomore Josh Lofton and Columbia Central junior Lillian Quinn taking top individual honors.

“I’m super proud of our boys, and even more so of our girls,” CA coach Brady Henson said. “They really showed up.”

Lofton, who finished the 5K course in 17 minutes, 47.07 seconds, was joined in the top five by three of his teammates – runner-up C.J. Barr (17:54.80), fourth-place finisher Danny Douglas (18:27.36) and Luke Tatum (18:31.27).

Of those, Douglas is the only senior.

“It’s a big-time youth movement,” Henson said, regarding sophomore Barr, junior Tatum and freshman Ty Withrow (18:40.40), who finished seventh. “We really called this year kind of a rebuilding year. But they’ve impressed me from June forward.”

Spring Hill – which did not field a team last fall – finished second in the boys team competition. Led by third-place finisher Kyle Nielsen (18:06.76), Matthew Gregory (sixth place, 18:36.68) and Kevin Caraballo (eighth place, 18:44.42), the Raiders scored 48 points to CA’s 19.

 

 

“We’ve put in a lot of hard work,” first-year coach Beau Moss said. “We knew we had a lot of talent in the hallways, and we went and recruited them. We tried to coordinate with Battle Creek Middle. Spring Hill Middle didn’t have a team last year, either. We’re trying to build a program.”

Columbia Central’s Josh Park (18:59.96) and Mt. Pleasant’s Ben Hirsch (19:03.34) rounded out the boys top 10.

On the girls side, Quinn covered the course in a time of 21:02.73 to finish ahead of Spring Hill’s Emmalee Rau (21:28.51) and CA’s MacKenzie Reames (21:53.59).

“She’d do better if she had some competition at the front,” Central coach Sarah Robert said regarding the junior, who transferred from Agathos Classical following her freshman year. “It was a little hard for her to pace. She missed her (personal record) by 15 seconds. We expect her to be in her 20s. She thrives when there’s somebody in front of her to chase or somebody behind her to push.

“She’s run a 20:44. I wouldn’t be surprised if she broke 20 this year.”

Jessee Newton of Agathos placed fourth with a 22:44.37, with Columbia Academy taking four of the next six spots – Jaelyn Hickerson (fifth place, 23:22.46), Sara Martin (sixth place, 24:35.40), Karlee Long (ninth place, 25:23.66) and Braelyn Henry (10th place, 25:49.77).

Led by Nora Kate Butt’s 25:15.05, the eighth-best time, Santa Fe placed second in the girls team competition. The Lady Wildcats scored 42 points to Columbia Academy’s 17.

“That was our first race of the season to have a full team,” Santa Fe coach Jonathon Slaughter said. “We usually have three runners, but I was able to get my girls basketball players that aren’t playing volleyball to come run with us, and that put us over the top.

“That was Nora Kate’s first race. On Sunday, she ran the Santa Fe 5K and she cut three minutes from that to this.”

Culleoka’s Anna Shackleford ran a 24:48.37 for seventh place.

In middle school competition, Columbia Academy’s Hudson Cofer (11:52.76) won the boys two-mile race, finishing ahead of runner-up Jack Grippo of Agathos and Jayden Bowe of Spring Hill. CA’s Gracie Orton (13:43.27) was the middle school girls winner, with Battle Creek’s Sydney Bratton placing second and CA’s Ryleigh Curry third.

Battle Creek’s boys won the team title, with CA second and Agathos third. Columbia Academy was the only girls team to score.

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