Pope’s Aislynn Dunn finished two-tenths of a second ahead of teammate Kate Rytlewski to win the Class 6A Sectional 1 cross country title Saturday, Oct. 31, helping the Greyhound girls claim the team championship.
The boys and girls teams from Pope, Lassiter and Walton all qualified for the GHSA state meet. All six squads will race Saturday, Nov. 7, at Carrollton High School.
Dunn completed the course in 17:57.27, followed by Rytlewski in 17:57.47, according to the published sectional results. Phoebe Throckmorton placed ninth and Fallyn Wheeler finished 10th, giving Pope four runners in the top 10.
Pope scored 58 points to finish ahead of Creekview’s 91. Lassiter placed fifth with 150, led by Madison Ho in 18th. Ravenna Daswani finished 25th, Lucy Beam 28th, Chloe Hua 38th and Taylor Marie Chin 41st.
Pope also produced the boys’ individual champion. Rowen Maloney won in 15:28.94 as the Greyhounds finished second with 103 points behind Creekview’s 51.
Jason Glover placed 20th for Pope, followed by Jay Throckmorton in 21st, Bennett Wright in 24th and Tommy Fife in 37th.
Lassiter took third with 133 points. Dylan Judge led the Trojans in seventh, Ethan Harrison finished eighth and Grant Heron placed 15th.
Walton’s boys and girls each finished third at the Class 7A Sectional 2 meet.
Harper Strong placed fourth to lead the Raider girls, who scored 139 points. Julia Betton finished 29th, Cameron Hardy 30th, Julie Chen 35th and Maren Miceli 41st.
The Walton boys scored 142 points behind Denmark and North Gwinnett. William Gentner led the Raiders in 14th at 16:43.27. Finn Timmons placed 24th, Adam Saif 26th, Liam Welsh 35th and Matt Lu 43rd.
Under GHSA rules, the top 12 teams from each sectional advance, along with the first 20 individual finishers regardless of their team’s qualification.
The state championships run Nov. 6–7. Pope and Lassiter compete in Class 6A, while Walton runs in Class 7A; both classifications race Saturday.
