Hartselle, Brewer runners advance to 5A state meet
Three cross country runners from Hartselle High and six from Brewer High School qualified to compete in the state meet by virtue of their finish in Class 5A section competition at Heritage Christian College in Florence on Saturday.
The state meet will be held at Oakville Indian Mounds and Education Center on Sat., Nov. 12. The girls division run will begin at 10:50 a.m. and the boys run will follow at 11:30 a.m.
Hartselle High freshman Johnathan Duncan qualified for state by finishing second in the boys division 5K run with a time of 17:09.11. He finished second to Andrew Harris of Walker who ran the course in 17:05.24. Brewer’s Clay Oden came in third with a time of 17:09.05.
Two members of Hartselle’s girls team also advanced. They were Taylor Barnett who finished 14th with a time of 22:42.55 and Haley Baker who came in 18th with a time of 23:24.42.
In addition to Oden, Brewer had five other runners finish 20th or better and qualify for state. Joining him from the boys team will be Sam Martin who finished 19th with a time of 18:39.33 and Jose Arellanes who came in 20th with a time of 18:54.94.
Brewer’s girls team also advanced three runners to state. Trina Badger was section winner with a time of 21:23.67. Following her with top 20 finishes were Katie Brakke (15th) with a time of 24.14.57 and Lyndsey Collier (16th) with a time of 23:16.36.
Only the top three teams in each gender class qualify for state. Brewer girls finished fourth and Hartselle came in fifth. Brewer’s boys finished fourth and Hartselle came in sixth.
“Even though it didn’t work out the way we’d hoped, the good thing is we’re a young team and we’ll have another shot next year,” said Hartselle head coach Kenneth Lopez. “I was pleased that we were able to advance three runners, and we’ll be pulling for them all the way on Saturday.”
“I know how hard these kids have worked and I applaud them for that,” he added. “We’ve got a lot of young runners and the future looks good for them.”
Other section competitors and their times are listed as follows:
Hartselle boys—Ben Paulsen, 21st, 18:57.58; Cameron Cunningham, 25th, 19:18.98; Chase Barrett, 37th, 19:51.98; Alex Witt, 47th, 20:24.58; David Mach, 56th, 21:43.11;Landon Tall, 61st, 22:20.38; Timothy Ammons, 62nd, 22:24.31; Shannon Kirby, 65th, 23:04.95; and Ryan Nowka, 66th, 23:27.69.
Hartselle girls—Kelsey Rae Walling, 21st, 24:10.08; Rachel Robbins, 22nd, 24:14.37; Rachel Paulsen, 27th, 24>51.88; Shelby Kaup, 29th, 25:13.04; Lindsey Elmore, 31st, 25:15.29; Savannah Morgan, 37th, 26:111.54; and Erin Brown, 42nd, 26:58.73.
Brewer boys—Fernando Arellanes, 28th, 19:24.28; Corey Phelps, 30th, 19:29.54; Jarrett Oden, 57th, 21:46.91; Jose Rodriquez, 58th, 21:48.58; and Jordan Caudle, 67th, 23:43.86.
Brewer girls—Whitney West, 43rd, 27:05.55; and Caitlin Lavender, 38th, 29:05.50.
