Cross Country season off to hilly start

Lincoln High School hosted the first major area high school cross country meet this weekend and seventy-four girls and eighty-four boys battled it out on a warm morning over a tough hilly course. The times reflected the difficulty of the new course at Tom Brown Park, including a climb up “hang-glider hill” in the third mile. The kids had to climb out of the woods and up a steep hill near the end, then climb a long but more gradual incline before finishing on a short down hill. Part of the course deep in the woods ran through shoe suckin’ mud and more than one runner lost a shoe while traveling through this bog. Perry Shaw, the meet director and Lincoln High coach, got a last minute surprise when the “disc frisbee” tournament took over a critical part of the old course, requiring a last minute redesign and the insertion of hang-glider hill.

Ryan Deak (Maclay) and Scott Poindexter (Lincoln) ran the first two miles in the boys race together before Ryan pulled away to defend his title in this meet. Ryan finished strong to claim the 2001 title in 16:31. Scott Poindexter reinforced his claim to being one of the best runners in the area by finishing second in approximately 16:50. The senior has become Lincoln’s leader and is off to a fast start. Deak’s time illustrated the difficulty of the new course. Ryan ran 15:28 just one week earlier in Mobile. Brandon Harris (Maclay) took third place. On the girls side, Kara Newell (Maclay) continued her winning streak by running 19:33 to best Allie Hunter (Lincoln) who ran around 20:00 minutes. Laura Hawks (Maclay) grabbed the third spot.

Maclay swept the team titles with the boys scoring only 22 points to win and girls scoring 27. Lincoln took second place in both classes. Rickards was third in the girls competition and Rutherford captured that spot in the boys competition. More complete

Individual and Team Scores.