DeKalb cross country teams came away with six region team championships and six individual titles as 16 squads qualified for the GHSA State Championships on November 1-2 at Carrollton High School.

Druid Hills will be the first program up at the state championships on Friday, November 1 at 9:00 am (boys) and 9:45 am (girls) after sweeping both the team and individual Region 4-4A championships at Nash Farm Battlefield in Hampton on Thursday.

The Red Devils scored a 25-30 win over Woodward Academy for the team title behind a 1-2-3 finish at the top of the standings and two more runners in the Top 10.

Mike Rosenbluth (17:21.14) led the 1-2-3 finish of three Red Devils to cross the finish line first followed by Sage Walker (17:33.51) and Siddhartha Narker (17:36.87). Will Goldsmith (18:10.97) was ninth with Graham Norris (18:16.85) in 10th.

The Lady Red Devils also put up a score of 25 to defeat Woodward (31) as six runners came in in the Top 10 led by individual champ Sophia Shepherd (20:05.41) who won by 1:18.31 over the second place finisher.

Genevieve Ferrara (21:40.36) picked up a bronze medal for her third place finish while three Lady Devils finished sixth through eighth. Taleah Cassura (22:21.12) was sixth followed by Katie Blount (22:25.67) and Reese Rathur (22:40.84). Charlotte Walker (23:11.19) rounded out the Top 10 finishers.

Region 4-6A – 7-6A
The Tucker Tigers and Martin Luther King Jr. Lady Lions captured the Region 4-6A titles in the championships postponed from Saturday to Monday of this week.

Tucker took the first three finishes in the boys’ championship and had five in the Top 10 on the way to a 20-46 win over the Martin Luther King Jr. Lions at Druid Hills Middle School.

Freshman Zinabu Marcos ran the second best time of all the DeKalb regional participants this season with a 17:20.00 to capture the 4-6A boys’ individual gold medal while teammates Yesahk Ergano (17:32.30) and Yordanos Ephram (18:07.10) followed in second and third, respectively.

Abedelemeji Kerebo (18:37.90) was fifth and Jarvis Wynn (19:38.70) was ninth.

The Lions had three seniors finish in the Top 10 as Darian Wragg (18:53.60) was sixth, Zai Anderson-Brown (19:15.20) and Christan Boyd (19:17.30) in eighth.

Another title for DeKalb came in the 4-6A girls’ championship as the Martin Luther King Jr. Lady Lions ran past Forest Park 31-51 for the win. Stephenson (131) finished fifth and Tucker (134) was sixth but failed to qualify for state.

King’s Daisy Grier-Rowser (23:21.00) picked up a silver medal finish to lead the Lady Lions. Jasmine Paige (24;21.50) was fifth followed by Demetria Lind (24:37.10) in sixth, Aaliyah Peterson (24:40.10) in eighth and Star Grier-Rowser (25:20.70) in 10th to complete the five in the Top 10.

The Dunwoody Lady Wildcats (94) qualified for state with a fourth place finish in Region 7-6A behind Cambridge (45), Johns Creek (59) and Pope (74). Kate Bacon was top Lady Wildcat finished as she took eighth in 20:41.60.

Dunwoody’s Ethan Archibald (17:59.75) broke 18 minutes in a tough boys’ race as the Wildcats finished ninth and out of the qualifying for state.

The boys’ Class 6A state championship at Carrollton starts at 10:30 am for Tucker and Martin Luther King Jr. while the King and Dunwoody girls follow at 11:15 am.

Region 5-5A
The Clarkston boys’ and girls’ team had their first sweep of region individual titles in school history with the boys’ winning the 5-5A title and the girls coming in second.

Thaddee Barge, the DCSD County runner-up, captured the gold in 5-5A to lead the Angoras to their fourth consecutive 5-5A title and seventh consecutive over all dating back to the 2013 6-5A title 24-33 over the Chamblee Bulldogs. Southwest DeKalb finished third in the meet.

Firomsa Ibrahim was second (17:39.20) as the Angoras put four in the Top 10. Ilyas Abdi Nur (18:08.20) was fourth and Abenezer Woellore (18:25.00) was sixth.

Chamblee made it close with five runners in the Top 10 led by bronze medalist Fisher Isaacson (17:52.10) and Thomas Burgett (18:14.20) in fifth. Coming in seventh and eighth in a tight race to the finish line were William Elder (18:31.50) and Tyler Hood (18:31.70). Caedmon Isaacson (18:40.60) captured 10th in the race.

Southwest DeKalb’s Jackson Taylor (18:40.10) grabbed ninth place to round out the Top 10.

The Chamblee Lady Bulldogs captured their fourth consecutive 5-5A title as runners came in second through sixth to close out the win.

Clarkston sophomore Milak Colette (22:55.70) took the gold medal in the girls’ race before the five Chamblee runners cross the line.

Four ninth graders led the Chamblee run to a fourth title led by Lydia Traynelis (23:12.20) in second followed by Abby Barnes (23:46.30), Reagan Kuehne (23:49.70) and Anna Zhai (23:52.00). Senior Emily Brown (24:26.10) sealed the title with her sixth place finish.

Chamblee also picked up the eighth and ninth spots in the Top 10 as sophomore Shrita Reddy (24:50.30) and junior Stephanie Lynch (25:44.80) finished in the Top 10.

Clarkston juniors Zoi Woods (24:49.00) was seventh and junior Diane Ingabire (25:48.80) was 10th.

Clarkston, Chamblee and Southwest DeKalb will run on Friday, November 1 with the boys starting at 12:00 pm with the girls from all three teams running at 12:45 pm.

Area 4-7A
Both the Lakeside Vikings and Lady Vikings qualified for state competition out of a deep Area 4-7A Championship.

The Vikings were led to a fifth place finish by Mikias Mekonen who scorched the course at the Georgia International Horst Park in Conyers with a time of 16:16.09 to win by 17.41 seconds.

Lakeside came in fourth in the girls’ standings behind a pair of Top 10 finishes to score 96 points. Ellie Skelton won the silver in 19:50.47 while teammate Haley Davis picked up a sixth place finish in 20:13.54.

The two teams advance to the Class 7A championship in Carrollton on Saturday, November 2. The boys begin at 9:30 am with the girls follow at 10:15 am.

Region 5-3A
The Stone Mountain Pirates qualified for the Class 3A state meet for the fourth consecutive year out of 5-3A while the Towers Lady Titans broke a string of three consecutive trips to state by Cedar Grove to qualify for state.

The Pirates led by Top 25 performances by Abdallah Mini (19:26.68) in 23rd and Yusuf Dirie (19:28.47) slipped in ahead of Towers (129-137) for the fourth qualifying spot. Towers Emmanuel Clement was the top DeKalb performer finished in 18:29:45 to finish 22nd overall.

Taheera Abdulah (25:45.21) crossed in 22nd to lead the Lady Titans to a qualifying spot since before 2004.

The Class 3A state meet begins on Saturday with Stone Mountain boys running at 12:30 pm and Towers girls following at 1:15 pm.

See link below for complete DCSD region results:

2019 DCSD Cross Country Region Results

CROSS COUNTRY STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS
CARROLLTON HIGH SCHOOL, CARROLLTON, GA
FRIDAY, NOV. 1
CLASS 4A (2)
BOYS – 9:00 AM – DRUID HILLS (Region champ)
GIRLS – 9:45 AM – DRUID HILLS (Region champ

CLASS 6A (4)
BOYS -10:30 AM – TUCKER (Region champ), M.L. KING
GIRLS – 11:15 AM – M.L. KING (Region champ), DUNWOODY

CLASS 5A (6)
BOYS – 12:00 PM – CLARKSTON (Region champ), CHAMBLEE, SW DEKALB
GIRLS – 12:45 PM – CHAMBLEE (Region champ), CLARKSTON, SW DEKALB

SATURDAY, NOV. 2
CLASS 7A (2)
BOYS – 9:30 AM – LAKESIDE
GIRLS – 10:15 AM — LAKESIDE

CLASS 3A (2)
BOYS – 12:30 PM – STONE MOUNTAIN
GIRLS – 1:15 PM — TOWERS