By BAKER ELLIS / Sports Editor

MOULTON – Both the girls team from the Westminster School at Oak Mountain and Cole Stidfole, the top boys runner from Oak Mountain High School, found themselves in contention for a state championship on Nov. 14 at the Indian Mounds cross-country course outside of Moulton. Both were in contention, but both finished second overall in the closest team and individual races of the day.

The Lady Knights lost out to St. Bernard out of Cullman by a single point, 49-48. Maddie Hoaglund and Sarah Kate Lipperd came in fourth and fifth respectively with times of 20:21.27 and 20:33.56 while Camryn Neal came in 10^th overall with a time of 20:46.56. St. Bernard had the top two finishers at the 1A-2A meet, and edged the Lady Knights by a single point. Westminster figures to be back in the hunt for a state title next season, as the top seven runners for the Lady Knights are all returning next year.

The boys from Westminster finished fifth at the 1A-2A state championship out of 12 teams with 178 total points, and beat out Altamont by two points. Pierce Moffett was the top finisher for Westminster with a time of 18:34.96.

The top seeded runner in class 7A and across the whole state heading into the Nov. 14 state championship races was Oak Mountain junior Cole Stidfole. Stidfole ran a 15:20.45 earlier this season and was the odds-on favorite to take home the 7A individual state title. But Auburn senior Paul Barlow, who ran a 15:30.52 at the state meet, upstaged Stidfole by less than two seconds to claim his second straight 7A individual state championship. Auburn also won the 7A state championship, beating Mountain Brook by eight points.

Stidfole’s 15:32.48 led Oak Mountain, and Caleb Van Geffen and Sean Drummond also finished in the top 20 to lead the Eagles to a fourth-place finish with 102 points.