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Published Wednesday, November 04, 2009 in Sports

Heritage School runner captures GISA state title

By News Staff

The Times-Herald

MACON --The Heritage School closed out its cross-country season Saturday at the GISA AA State meet with strong performances from it teams as well as an individual state championship for Lady Hawks No. 1 runner Aleisha Kahn.

Defending team champion Frederica Academy came away with another girls state title by placing several runners in the top 10.

But Kahn, a junior and a top-10 finisher last year, race ran a patient and tactical race to overhaul runner up Brittany Landris of Frederica to capture her first state championship.

Trailing for much of the race Kahn surged at the two-mile mark to push past Landis, finishing in a time of 21:04. The win for Kahn completed a runner's double as two weeks ago she claimed first place in the Region 4AA meet hosted at Heritage. Teammates Ellie Crosby and Lydia Powell finished in 12th and 15th place respectively for the Lady Hawks.

On the boys side Heritage School ran to a second place team finish behind a strong Tiftarea team. Senior Irvin Dunn's 19:39 finish at 11th place led the Hawks. Heritage School did not place a runner in the top 10 but pack running helped them finish as Class AA state runner-up

Joel Prock, Johann Hassanally, Larry Schaeffer, Hadley Heidnel, and George McGreggor closed out the scoring for Heritage.

The runner-up team finish was a pleasant surprise. The Hawks brought a relatively inexperienced team to state that included three runners in their first season of cross country competition.

In the JV girls race Heritage School ran well to place in fifth place. The team was led by Seventh grader Ruthie Powell's fourth-place time of 10:17 over the 1.6 mile course. Sophia Engel, Colyer Montgomery, Clara Haugen, Marianna Spraggins, and Emma Martin all ran strong races to lead the team to a top ten finish.

The Hawks JV boys Tripp Brown and John Dean Uglum finished out their season with improved performances and personal bests to finish out their seasons.

The state meet also saw the last appearance of one of the top girl runners in the GISA, Grace Tinkey of First Presbyterian Day School. Tinkey, a freshman at FPD who has gone under 18 minutes this season easily ran away with the AAA girls title with a time of 18:19. First Presbyterian will join the GHSA next season.

Among Class AAA boys, Dylan Swafford of Central Fellowship won the individual honors with a time of 16:29. The team title was won by Mt. De Sales Academy.

Northgate, Newnan and East Coweta will alll have representatives at Saturday's GHSA State Championships.

The Cougars and Indians will run in the Class AAAAA boys race and the Lady Cougars qualified for the Class AAAAA girls run.

Northgate's boys, led by senior Bret Eady, run in the Class AAAA boys championship run.

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