PREP CROSS COUNTRY: Cold Springs, Lady Saints take home small-school crowns at Pepsi XC Challenge; Holly Pond’s Chambers speeds to individual title

Published 3:41 pm Sunday, August 26, 2018

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Cold Springs’ boys and St. Bernard’s girls kicked off the cross country season with respective small-school titles (Class 1A-4A) at the Pepsi XC Challenge on Saturday.

Cole Akridge (fifth), Jonathan Collett (ninth), Seth Walker (11th), Aaron Spurger (13th) and Will Grimmett (18th) crafted top-20 outings for the Eagles, who finished comfortably ahead of Fairview, St. Bernard and Holly Pond en route to a second consecutive team crown at the annual competition in Moulton.

St. Bernard’s Caleb Guthery (fourth) and Joey McCarthy (sixth), Fairview’s Peyton Bailey (16th), A.B. Diaz (17th) and Daniel Cook (19th), and Holly Pond’s Parker Sellers (20th) also secured top-20 showings for their respective squads.

Hanceville’s Aaron Brown, competing in the large-school division, placed 16th overall.

The Lady Saints, meanwhile, rode superb efforts from Chloe Tumbo (eighth), Claire Sanders (10th), Emma Powell (15th), Lizbeth Medina (30th) and Sara Barck (35th) to surge ahead of Cold Springs, Falkville and Holly Pond and earn their first team title of the season.

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Holly Pond’s Camilla Chambers (20:20.37) bettered the 95-runner field by nearly a minute to stake claim to the small-school individual crown.

Cold Springs’ Ava Akridge (third), Ashleigh White (11th) and Alyssa Jackson (16th) rounded out the other top-20 outings for local squads.