B

y BAKER ELLIS / Sports Editor

BREMEN – Both the boys and girls cross-country teams from Indian Springs made it out of the 1A-2A Section 2 meet in the top three, and will now advance to the state meet on Nov. 14. The Knights were one of just four schools in the county along with Helena, Pelham and Briarwood, to send both the boys and girls teams to state.

The boys placed third in their section race, beating the fourth place team from Shades Mountain Christian by handily 33 points to secure a state berth. No runner for the Knights finished in the top 10 overall, but their top five runners all finished within eight spots of each other. John Porterfield and Pierce Moffett finished back to back at 11^th and 12^th with times of 18:06.05 and 18:13.18 to lead the way for the Knights. Cole Callahan finished 14^th with a time of 18:29.10, Hunter Wright finished 16^th with a time of 18:51.78 and Campbell Lemons finished 18^th overall in the section with a time of 18:55.84.

While the boys squeaked into the state meet with a third place finish in the section, the girls manhandled their section race, winning the meet going away. Four of the top five finishers were Lady Knights, and all five of Westminster’s scoring runners finished in the top seven. Maddie Hoaglund and Sarah Kate Lipperd led the way for Westminster, as they have all season, with first and second place finishes. The junior Hoaglund won the meet with a time of 20:05.55 and the sophomore Lipperd came in second with a time of 20:08.55. Camryn Neal finished fourth followed by Hannah Richburg at fifth and Hallie Porterfield rounded out the top five for the Lady Knights with her seventh-place finish.

The Lady Knights average time of 20:23.94 was over a minute faster than any other 1A-2A girls team at any other section meet across the state on Nov. 5, setting Westminster up nicely to take home a state title at the state meet in a little over a week.