Class AAAAA
As noted before competition, 5A was a sea of chaos. Annie Hill dropped out. Sara Funderburk caught a cramp and never recovered until the very end. Hahnville is apparently a powerhouse for individual distance runners (remember the twins on the boys side a couple years ago?). Things are crazy in 5A. Olivia Murphy led her team by winning in 18:36 over teammate Claire Crosby who ran 18:51. One minute behind her was Gabby Chauvin of SJA who took over Annie's duties and led the Redstickers. Mandeville also had the 4th place finisher, Ally MuCulley (20:08) and 9th place Chelsey Jones (20:18). Hahnville had the 5th place runner Emily Blanchard (20:09). If you couldn't guess, Mandeville won over SJA 48-59 with Dominican in third with 110.
Boys 5A was the wild west. Throw rankings out the window when these teams line up. Any one of the top 6 teams could most likely beat the rest of the top 6 on any given day. Today was Jesuit's turn. They, and their army of kids who who I couldn't remember seeing at any point in the race (perhaps they're ninjas), whooped up on the 5A class for a second year in a row. They did not have a single runner in the top 10 for the second year in a row as well. They pack run better than anyone else, and no one had an answer for it. They beat runner-up John Curtis (last year's 3A champs) by a score of 106-118 with Catholic of BR in third with 133. John Curtis made the move worth it with their top runner, Devyn Keith, able to test himself at the highest level against Eric Coston of St. Paul's. Keith outsprinted Coston 16:08-16:15. Eric was a former 5A state champion in XC as well, having this race be a rare multiple state champion xc contest. Jeffery Kelley (16:21) of CHS was third.
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