By MICKEL PONTHIEUX / Sports Reporter

NORTH SHELBY – Briarwood Christian’s Mallory Mathias led the Lady Lions to a third place finish at the Section 3, Class 5A meet at Hoover’s Veteran’s Park on Nov. 1.

Mathias won the girls’ race by a 19-second margin over Homewood’s Ann Mosely Whitsett. With the third place finish, the Lady Lions team qualifies for the Class 5A state meet on Nov. 10.

John Carroll finished first in the team standings with 38 points with Homewood finishing with 41 points for second.

Shelby County’s Marjorie Head and Brookelynn Smith also qualified for the state meet. Head and Smith were among six runners that made the state meet that weren’t on the top-3 teams.

Jared Long led the Briarwood boys’ team to a third place finish to also make the state meet. Long took 12th with a time of 18:46.77 to lead the Lions while Sam Whorton (13) rounded out Briarwood runners in the top-20.

Homewood took home the team championship with 25 points while John Carroll had 32 points for second.