French Camp hosted a cross country meet and finished third behind two defending state champions in the boys and girls races.
Choctaw County was fifth in the boys varsity race and second in the boys middle school race. Kosciusko also participated in the meet, but did not have enough runners to compete as a team in the boys and girls varsity races.
French Camp finished with a team score of 91 in the boys varsity race, trailing defending 5A champion Saltillo (28) and defending 1A champion Tupelo Christian (34). In the girls race, it was Saltillo 23, Tupelo Christian 36 and French Camp 79.
“When you compete against the 1A state champions and the 5A state champions, you're going to come up a little short. But we did well,” said French Camp coach Joe Watkins.
Colby Walters was French Camp's top runner in the boys race, finishing 11th with a time of 18:23.62 for 5,000 meters. He was followed by Stratton Choppala, 26th in 20:21.90; Cameron McDaniel, 30th in 20:42.40; Silas Hodge, 37th in 21:33.87; and Brady Peacock, 45th in 22:57.02.
Watkins was especially pleased with the performance by Choppala, an eighth grader. “He is all of 90 pounds. If you saw him, you would never think that he could run like that. I felt like the day belonged to Stratton.”
Brock Kelly of Tupelo Christian won the race, finishing more than a minute ahead of teammate Causey Simmons with a time of 16:00.84. That was 33 seconds faster than his time in winning the state 1A meet last year.
Averie Jane Gundy was French Camp's top girl, 26th with a time of 23:37.91. Seventeen of the runners who finished ahead of her are from Saltillo, which brought 99 runners – three bus loads – to the meet.
McKenzie Griffin, Maddi Davis, Kelsey Bridges and Olivia Gundy finished together for French Camp in 29th, 30th, 31st, and 32nd, each with a time between 24 and 24½ minutes.
Madison Jones of Saltillo was the race winner in 19:32.06.
French Camp will not run again until the 1A state meet November 4 at Choctaw Trails in Jackson. The Panthers finished fifth for both boys and girls last year.
Kosciusko had three runners in the boys varsity race and four in the girls race. At least five runners are needed to compete as a team.
For the boys, Gutavo Orduna was 14th in 18:43.02, Jorge Orduna 16th in 18:59.53 and Cooper Sparks 53rd in 24:32.32.
Raven Pernell was Kosciusko’s top girl, finishing 14th with a clocking of 22:43.28. She was followed by Reid Hutchinson, 17th in 23:08.93; Markayla McBride, 27th in 24:05.37; and Emmalee Myers, 63rd in 32:11.31.
Kosciusko was second in the girls middle school race and third in the boys race. Emma Rhodes was the team’s top girl with a ninth place finish in 15:14.78. The boys were led by Andrew Mancell, eighth in 12:52.37.
Choctaw County boys were fifth with a team score of 125. Jared Bellew was 29th (20:37.65), followed by Trenton McGee, 32nd in 20:48.46; Isaac Burdine, 38th in 21:34.21; Braden McGee, 54th in 24:38.02; and Landon Wells, 62nd in 26:40.43.
