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November 5, 2009

Area ready to run at state

By Larry Fleming

Dalton cross country coach Karen Galyon likes how the Region 7-4A champion Catamounts fit into the Class 4A state meet title picture.

“I’ve looked at other times,” Galyon said. “We’re very competitive with all of them. It’s to our advantage to have so many guys running close to the same time.”

The Cats and Lady Cats qualified for Saturday’s state meet at Carrollton by winning and placing third, respectively, in last week’s region meets in Powder Springs. Murray County senior Josh Stanley used a fifth-place finish to earn his second consecutive trip to the 4A state meet, while Southeast senior Josue Limas will compete in the 3A meet.

Dalton senior Andrew Bruner led a concentrated surge to the region title with an official time of 17 minutes, 28 seconds, which was good for eighth place overall.

Prior to this year, the last time Dalton won a region cross country title, Bruner’s brother, John, was a senior standout. John died two years ago at the age of 19 during a road race in Chattanooga due to a rare coronary artery anomaly.

“That helps make this year special,” Galyon said.

Dalton’s other four point producers at region were Chris Pineda (12th, 17:42), Jonathan Hernandez (14th, 17:44), Preston Pound (15th, 17:47) and Fernando Morales (19th, 17:58). Grant Snyder (20th, 17:59) and Daniel Beltran (27th,18:09) also competed for the Cats on Saturday in the seven-run, five-count format, the same one the state meet will follow. But even those who don’t score for a team can be crucial to their final place.

“This is a tough region and it was close on Saturday,” Galyon said. “It just shows how important the sixth and seventh runners can be. We got the one-point win because our sixth and seventh runners finished ahead of (second place) Allatoona’s fifth-place runner. We were tied with Allatoona, but our sixth-place runner (Grant Snyder) was 20th and their sixth-place runner was 46th.

“That broke the tie. It was about as tight a race as you can get. The whole varsity team is important. Six of our guys were under 18 minutes and Beltran hit 18:09. It was to our advantage to have so many guys running that close together. That made a big difference.”

Carina Nieto led the Lady Cats’ performance with a second-place finish in 20:12 and Bekah Houston was third at 20:24. Dalton also got points from Paxton Plunkett (14th, 21:19), Meral Henton (18th, 21:48) and Katarina Yi (32nd, 22:40). Reagan Fromm (23:04) and Jillian Lidderdale (24:04) also competed.

“This is the fastest girls team we’ve had in a while,” Galyon said. “They’re all under 23 minutes and two were under 21. They’re doing very well and seem to be cutting time off their bests in every meet. We’re hoping for good things on Saturday.”

Stanley, who earned a state berth as a junior, has the experience to compete under pressure related to state competition — and he’s healthy after battling illness for a couple of weeks.

“I’m fully recovered now,” said Stanley, The Daily Citizen’s All-Area Runner of the Year in 2008.

Stanley ran 17:15 for his state qualifying time in the region meet. That was far off his 16:19 posted in 2008, but good enough to get him back to Carrollton. He knows he’ll have to do better to make a good showing at state.

“It’s going to be tough,” Stanley said. “I’ve looked at some of the times and some of them are very fast. I’ll have to give it my all and see what happens.”

The last time Stanley competed at state, he had the rest of the Murray County team with him. That won’t be the case Saturday, because the Indians finished eighth at region and only four teams advance.

“That’s a change, but some of my teammates may come down to give me some support,” Stanley said. “Last year we took our varsity boys and one girl and all of us were pumped. I’m on my own this year.”

In the Region 6-3A meet, Limas ran an impressive personal-best 17:45 for fifth place in a 77-runner field to reach state. He also qualified as a sophomore.

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