By Cinthia Rico GUNTERSVILLE – The Fort Payne High School boys cross country team took first place in the Class 5A-7A Boys 5000 Meter Run with 34 points, while the girl’s team battled well against solid competition and finished first as a team with 17 points in the Lake Guntersville Invitational 2023 on Saturday morning.
The Fort Payne boys took the top three spots in the top 10 overall finishers. Pablo Rodriguez led the Wildcats to first place with a time of 16:31.71, Tyler Anthony followed in second place with a time of 16:34.56, and Samuel Moses took third with a time of 16:46.45.
The Wildcats were able to put four runners in the top 10 overall finishers while going head-to-head with Albertville, Douglas, Grissom, Boaz, and Austin.
Kyndal Hughes posted a third-place finish with a time of 19:38.84, Arianna Ignacio followed in fifth place (21:20.49), Sara Boatwright finished in eighth place with a time of 21:46.18, and Reese McCurdy placed 10th with a time of 22:05.36.
Adrian Balderas paced the Sylvania High School Boys Cross Country team with an eighth-place finish and set a personal best with a time of 17:50.83. The Rams team finished fourth overall with 106 points in the Class 1A-4A Boys 5000 Meter Run.
Second for the team was Riley Hopper, who also set a personal best with a time of 19:36.74 (19th overall). Gage Sanders finished shortly after in 27th place with a time of 20:28.46. All the Sylvania boys set a personal best for the season.
The Sylvania girls cross country team finished in fifth place with 138 points, led by Aubree Cleveland, who placed 21st with a time of 23:28.64, a season’s best. Molly Par followed in 33rd place with a time of 25:24.99, and Angelina Munguia, with a time of 25:37.43, was in 34th place.
Sand Rock swept both the boys’ and girls’ team competitions in Class 1A-4A, with Caleb Yoder winning the small school boys race.
Albertville standout cross country runner Daniel Leija made a surprise appearance at Saturday’s meet, two weeks after an accident ended his senior season prematurely.
Leija had established himself as one of the top runners in Marshall County and was well-known among the runner community.
The 2023 cross country playoffs start on Nov. 2.
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