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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

After two months of competition, local runners hit the course for the sectional championships on Oct. 30 and 31 in a quest to advance to state.

The top four teams and the top six individuals not on any of the state qualifying teams advanced to the state championship on Saturday, Nov. 7 at Oakville Indian Mound Park. Numerous teams and runners from the area advanced by meeting the criteria.

Here are the state qualifying results from each sectional site around the state of Alabama.

 

Trussville Sectional

On the team side, Briarwood and Chelsea punched their tickets from the 6A girls race while Spain Park and Briarwood made it from the boys race. Oak Mountain came in fourth place in both 7A boys and girls races to advance to state.

Chelsea’s Ty Cason added another win to her resume with a 6A sectional championship, taking first place with a time of 18:46.09. It was three seconds faster than Mountain Brook’s Emelia White in second place.

Pelham’s Emily Wester punched her ticket to state with a third-place finish thanks to her time of 19:20.80. She’ll be joined by Janelle Ramos, who came in 11th place with a time of 20:14.14.

Briarwood landed two runners in the top 10 as Lena Anne Parker finished in sixth place with a time of 19:51.99 and Allie Hale earned eighth place with a time of 19:58.49. Payton Casey came in 21st place with a time of 21:41.16, Emmie Hale earned 24th place with a time of 21:52.93 and Lily Cate Jeff secured 33rd place with a time of 22:31.58.

In addition, Anna Veal took 35th place with a time of 23:03.21 and Shannon Fitzpatrick came in 48th place with a time of 25:06.10.

For Chelsea, Emily Davis took 12th place with a time of 20:18.08, Sophie House secured 34th place with a time of 22:50.82, Eleanor Talley came in 23:58.26 and Chloe Randall finished in 46th place with a time of 23:58.26

Kaitlynn Symons was right behind Randall in 47th place with a time of 24:57.46 and Mary Holland Trantham took 57th place with a time of 33:19.09.

Spain Park secured three individual spots at state. Leighton Zelwak came in 20th place with a time of 21:33.64, Sarah Kate Phillips finished in 23rd place with a time of 21:49.97 and Maddie Cook secured 28th place with a time of 22:08.56.

In the boys race, Brody Ahlemeyer led the county with a fourth-place finish for Spain Park as he earned a time of 16:32.83. Chelsea’s Hudson Williams took fifth place with a time of 16:33.56, Whit Thornton came in sixth place with a time of 16:36.17 and Spain Park’s Luca Zellner rounded out the top 10 with a time of 17:06.13.

Ryan McCown came in 20th place for Spain Park with a time of 17:48.18, Isaiah Gilley earned 27th place with a time of 18:46.36 and Reuel Mwangi took 29th place with a time of 18:57.40. Cayden Gibbons and Fischer Meadows finished in 30th and 34th place respectively with times of 18:59.13 and 19:14.07.

Kolby Day came in 19th place for Briarwood with a time of 17:40.95, Noah Genin took 24th place with a time of 17:55.98, Lucas Meservey earned 25th place with a time of 18:05.04 and Will Mattson rounded out the scoring runners with a 45th-place finish and time of 21:16.46.

Sam Mixon came in 54th place with a time of 22:21.83 and Bill Davis took 56th place with his time of 23:26.83.

In addition to Williams, Chelsea’s individual qualifiers included Luke Dollar in 26th place with a time of 18:26.22, Jeremiah Kirkes in 28th place with a time of 18:53.13 and Jonathan Gordon in 33rd place with a time of 19:19.19.

Pelham’s Cole Hollingsworth qualified for state thanks to his 31st place time of 19:06.18.

In Class 7A, Cooper Jeffcoat was Oak Mountain’s top runner in sixth place with a time of 16:45.35. Isaac Glorioso also finished in the top 10 with an eighth-place time of 16:47.63. Sam Trammell came in 26th place with a time of 17:33.97, Zack Joyce took 31st place with a time of 17:43.69 and Braxton Noe rounded out the scoring runners with a 33rd-place time of 18:00.84.

In addition, Nathan Bensigner took 36th place with a time of 19:00.07 and Jacob Smitherman finished in 40th place with a time of 19:39.40.

Thompson sent four individual runners to state. Eli Wagner finished in 37th place with a time of 19:19.25, Kohen Jenkins-McGill came in 38th place with a time of 19:19.30, Andrew Sheffield took 39th place with a time of 19:26.32 and Cannon Weaver secured 44th place with a time of 20:14.47.

The Oak Mountain girls also had two runners in the top 10 as Catarina Williams came in seventh place with a time of 20:06.07 and Chloe Jeffcoat finished in eighth place with a time of 20:09.97.

Fiona Mallory finished in 18th place with a time of 20:54.54, Anikka Venter secured 23rd place with a time of 21:31.92 and Anna Bond earned 25th place with a time of 21:44.35. Maggie McPhail was the sixth-fastest Eagles runner with a 26th-place time of 21:49.24 and Alison Mims took 33rd place with a time of 21:56.67.

All five of Thompson’s scoring runners qualified for the state championship. Addison Zoebelein came in fifth place with a time of 19:46.16 to be the county’s top runner in the race, and Delaney Paganelli secured 12th place with a time of 20:19.33.

London Yarbrough finished in 24th place with a time of 21:41.37, Aliya Lane came in 28th place with a time of 21:51.31 and Luna Montiel-Duenas earned 31st place with a time of 21:55.06.

 

Auburn Sectional

Calera’s Dustin Best, Carter Duncan and Donovan Best all qualified for the state championship as individual runners. Dustin Best grabbed ninth place with a time of 19:34.97, Duncan earned 24th place with a time of 20:44.88 and Donovan Best finished in 36th place with a time of 22:42.60.

Indian Springs qualified for both the boys and girls Class 4A championships. The boys came in third place with 76 points while the girls finished in fourth place with 102 points.

Quinn Conroy earned first place with a time of 16:25.74. Jose Salazar finished in 12th place with a time of 18:48.53, Will Morris came in 16th place with a time of 19:11.74, Oliver Middleton finished in 17th place with a time of 19:12.17 and Isaac Rutsky finished in 30th place with a time of 20:14.94.

Harper Breitenfeld was Indian Springs’ top runner with a 16th-place finish of 23:36.97 and Eva Good was right behind her in 17th place with a time of 23:36.98. Other scoring runners included Lucia Kochlowski in 22nd place with a time of 24:47.02, Jessica Jing in 23rd place with a time of 24:51.20 and Madeline Schmidtke in 38th place with a time of 26:26.42.

 

American Christian Sectional

Westminster OM swept the Class 5A team and individual championships at its sectional. The boys came in first with 24 points behind Weaver Caldwell’s winning time of 15:57.80, and the girls earned the title with 26 points and Emily Mungai’s first-place finish of 19:37.90.

The boys had six of the top 10 runners, including Quinn McCurry in second with a time of 15:58.90, Aiden McEachran in fourth with a time of 16:13.50 and Daniel Vansant in eighth place with a  time of 17:38.60.

Riley Rehberg rounded out the scoring runners with a time of 17:40.60, Liam Brabston came in 10th place with a time of 17:55.10 and Zack Taylor finished in 14th place with a time of 18:20.60.

Shelby County was right behind Westminster OM in second place. Carter Wood led the Wildcats with a third-place finish of 16:10.40 and got top-10 times from Brayden Hutton and Zachary Hallmark. Hotton took sixth place with a time of 17:11.40 and Hallmark came in seventh place with his time of 17:27.90.

Kevin Davis earned 11th place with a time of 18:08.70 and Alex Fleming was the fifth scoring runner in 12th place with at time of 18:10.80. In addition, Will Dixon finished in 36th place with at time of 19:34:40 and Jackson Kyser finished in 38th place with a time of 19:42.10.

Like the boys, Westminster OM placed six girls in the top 10. Savannah Schleicher came in fourth place with a time of 20:33.00, Elloree Roberts finished in sixth place with a time of 20:47.00 and May May Harbert came in seventh place with a time of 21:19.00.

Hensley McCurry finished in eighth place with a time of 21:20.40, Sarah Adams came in ninth place with a time of 21:31.20, Mia Dorough earned 10th place with a time of 21:49.70 and Pippa Hussar rounded out the top-seven tiebreakers with an 11th-place finish of 21:55.30.

Four Shelby County runners qualified as individuals. Lorelei Hallmark came in 14th place with a time of 22:20.00, Josie Payne earned 23rd place with a time of 23:35.00, Hadassah Dorierty came in 25th place with a time of 24:14.90 and Kali Vigneulle finished in 26th place with a time of 24:17.80.

Helena’s full boys and girls teams both qualified out of Class 6A. The boys came in third place with 62 points while the girls came in third place with 81 points. The girls automatically qualified as being one of only four teams entered into their race.

Aldrie Rigdon won the girls race with a time of 19:22.60, coming in first place by 24 points.

Other scoring runners included Emma Price in 17th place with a time of 23:11.60, Rosalie Rhodes in 24th place with a time of 24:27.10, Sarah Enslen in 28th place with a time of 24:45.40 and Yzzie Walker in 29th place with a time of 24:48.10.

Elizabeth Awtry came in 30th place with a time of 24:58.60 and Ella Carr finished in 34th place with a time of 26:05.00.

For the boys, Camp Herndon took fifth place with a time of 16:42.70, Caleb Williford secured ninth place with a time of 17:48.50 and Merrick Blackman finished in 11th place with a time of 18:21.30.

Gavin Dreher came in 20th place with at time of 19:01.40, Brock Howell finished in 28th place with a time of 20:22.20, Ethan McGee earned 33rd place with a time of 21:39.40 and Jacob Young was right behind him in 34th place with a time of 21:50.40.

Lineville Sectional

Vincent’s Zane Pate came in 16th place of the Class 1A-2A boys race with a time of 20:34.92 to qualify for the state championship as an individual. The Jackets had two individual qualifiers from the girls race as Kalin Cobb came in 13th place with a time of 26:19.96 and Kaleigh Wills secured 19th place with a time of 27:37.71.