By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Sports Editor

OAKVILLE – It was a strong day for several local girls cross country teams at the 2019 Chickasaw Invitational held at Oakville Indian Mounds Park on Saturday, Sept. 7, as one team finished with a championship, two total teams finished inside the top five and three inside the top 15.

Individually, there were 12 total runners to finish inside the top 21 as well between the large school race and small school race.

In the small school event, the Westminster at Oak Mountain Knights built off their dominant 2018 state championship season by picking up a team victory in the event.

Highlighted by top-five finishes from Hannah Adams and Hallie Porterfield, the Knights totaled 58 points, which beat the next closest competitor by 53 points.

Adams, a freshman, was the highlight of the event with her second-place finish thanks to a time of 19:48.08. She finished just ahead of Porterfield in fourth with a time of 20:23.87. Those two finished inside the top four out of 243 runners.

McKenzie Fulton and Courtney Callahan finished 18th and 20th, respectively, to bring the Knights total of top-20 finishers to four. Fulton finished the race in 22:19.91, while Callahan held a time of 22:22.39.

Senior Arden McCullough finished in 27th with a time of 22:45.62, while Cammi Griffith and Sydney Raines Davis finished 42nd and 48th, respectively, for two more top-50 finishers.

In the large school race, the Spain Park Jaguars got off to a fast start to the 2019 season thanks to a finish of fourth in the event featuring 247 athletes. The Jags finished just one point behind Homewood and 22 points behind Mountain Brook, two of the top teams in the state.

The Jaguars were led by two finishers inside the top 25 thanks to Mackenzie Culpepper’s finish of 13th with a time of 20:15.75 and Holland Lidikay’s finish of 21st with a time of 20:37.11.

Peyton LeCroy and Chloe Finnocchiaro, both freshmen, finished inside the top 50 for Spain Park. LeCroy took home 44th with a time of 21:23.66, while Finnocchiaro finished 48th with a time of 21:31.11.

Just behind those two was Anna Lidikay with a finish of 52nd thanks to a time of 21:43.19.

The Oak Mountain Eagles also had a strong showing at the event, finishing 12th overall as a team.

The Eagles were led by senior Evie Bell, who claimed the 12th spot in the race with a finish of 20:05.55. Oak Mountain also got strong finishes from Emma Grace Phillips and Adrienne Cooley.

Phillips finished 32nd with a time of 21:07.36, while Cooley took home 36th with a time of 21:12.96.

Chelsea was the only other full team to participate from the county finishing 22nd in the overall standings. The Hornets were highlighted by Teanna Cason, who finished in 20th with a time of 20:35.98.

That followed up a strong finish of sixth for Cason at the Early Bird Twilight to kick off the 2019 season.