Falkville, Brewer strong at state
By Staff
Todd Thompson, Hartselle Enquirer
OAKVILLE — Crystal Gibbs earned her second straight top 10 finish at the Alabama High School Athletic Association’s state cross country championships.
Gibbs finished seventh overall in the 1A-2A girls’ race at the Oakville Indian Mounds Park Saturday to help the Lady Blue Devils finish fifth overall.
Brewer’s boys cross country team finished ninth overall with 270 points in the talent-laden 5A race.
Gibbs, Emily Robbins and Celese Sharbutt gave the Lady Blue Devils three runners in the top 25 places Saturday.
Robbins took more than a minute off her 2006 state meet time to finish 12th overall with a 21:24.62.
Sharbutt ran a 22:43.24 - nearly a minute faster than her 2006 time - to finish 25th overall.
Carver was 31st with a time of 22:56.23.
Also scoring for the Lady Blue Devils was Crystal Carver, who finished 31st overall with a time of 22:56.23.
Natalee Estes (100th, 28:24.31) and Bailey Dunkin (102nd, 30:30.40) also ran for Falkville, but did not count in the team scores.
“We did real well,” said Falkville coach Karen Wilemon. “We actually tied for fourth but were edged out when they went to the sixth runner. We had two young girls running and they both did real well.”
American Christian won the 1A-2A girls’ title with a 20-point margin over Bayside Academy. Cold Springs was third.
Brewer had four runners finish the boys’ Class 5A race with sub-19:00 times - Andy Sanford, Nathan Hamilton, Hunter Eddy and Travis Holloman.
The Patriots’ ninth place finish was the first time the boys’ team had placed since the 2003 season and the best finish for the cross country program in 10 years.
Sanford led the Patriots with a time of 18:03.29, while Hamilton (18:35.56), Eddy (18:39.88) and Holloman (18:42.37) finished 60th through 62nd respectively.
Hamilton’s time was nearly a minute and a half faster than his time in the 2006 state meet. “I was really proud of Nathan’s time,” Trotter said. “He made a tremendous improvement.”
Josh David ran a 19:01.25 to finish 80th overall.
Also running, but not counting in the team score was Brent Smothers (106th, 19:44.57) and Kyle Wigginton (130th, 21:00.24).
St. Paul’s won the Class 5A boys’ state title, while UMS-Wright and Scottsboro finished second and third respectively.
Brewer’s Bree Watkins, running as an individual in the girls’ Class 5A race, finished 28th overall with a time of 20:46.49.
Justin Blanchard paced the Falkville boys’ team with a seventh-place finish in the Class 1A-2A race. He shaved more than 37 seconds off his
time from a year earlier when he finished eighth.
Cory Hill ran an 18:48.35 to take 31st, while Heath Blanchard finished 50th at 19:47.51.
Blanchard and Hill are both seniors.
