The Altha cross country team hosted their very first meet, Friday, October 2, and WOW what an outstanding performance they had. Two of the team members placed in the top three and many of the team members ran their personal best times. Coach John Sewell said their performances are really starting to improve and he is so proud of the effort he is seeing from all of them.
Teams in attendance were Wewa and Port St Joe. The top five girls were Mary Sewell: 23:56, Kimi Wiltse: 26:53, Hannah Plazarin: 27:07, Rebekah Wiltse: 27:09, and Madison Rowe: 27:23. The top five boys were Devin Ferrell: 20:42, Ashton Baggett: 21:25, Porter Smith: 21:30, Tyler Hamilton: 22:43, and Ethan Ellis: 22:45. In the girls division, Mary Sewell placed 2nd overall. In the boys division Devin Ferrell received 3rd place overall.
Coach Maggie Sewell noted the park was packed with fans from the community. AHS administrators, faculty and staff, students, and also many parents came out to cheer on the Wildcats.
Both coaches would like to send out a special thank you to Rodney Smith for all his help in preparing the course, Russell Baggett for being a course monitor, and SRO Randy McCroan and Deputy Eddie Dalton for policing traffic.
The team’s next meet will be held in Daytona, Florida. They will be participating in the Embry-Riddle University Cross Country Classic. The course is one of the most challenging in the state of Florida. College teams will also be in attendance. Altha will be competing in the small school division (1A/2A schools).
The following are the top five finishers for the meet. In the girls division, coming in first place from Wewa was Donie Lanier with a time of 23:46. Second place was Mary Sewell from Altha with a time of 23:56, third place was Wewa’s Laurel Manor, 26:05, fourth place was Altha’s Kimi Wiltse, 26:53, and fifth place, Altha’s Hannah Plazarin, 27:07.
In the boys division, coming in first was Wewa’s Andrew Bidwell, 19:34. Second place, also from Wewa, was William Bailey, 20:26. In third place was Altha’s, Devin Ferrell, 20:42. Fourth place was Altha’s Ashton Baggett, 21:25, and 5th place, also from Altha, was Porter Smith, 21:30.
