The Sandy Creek Invitational was run Saturday at, you guessed it, Sandy Creek High School. The meet featured over 40 teams and well over four hundred runners from different high schools in Georgia. It was a state qualifying meet so many area schools were running for their bid to the state meet. The Invitational was a good way to gage the strength of the competition as well as the strength of individual runners.

McIntosh appears to be headed in the right direction with both the boys and girls teams. The girls placed second overall in Saturday's meet. Freshman Dana Van Winkle finished third overall with a time of 18:37.3. The time was also good enough to break the old school record for Girls 5K, formerly held by Tina Frye, now a top runner at Georgia Tech. Elizabeth Gardner broke the old record as well with a time of 18:47.5. A freshman as well, she finished fourth overall at the meet. Rounding out the top five for the Lady Chiefs were Tina Paone, Connie Gaan and Erin Bartles with times of 20:05, 20:32 and 21:47 respectively. The girls were missing their three and four runners in freshmen Mary Catherine Crofton and Judy Thomasson on Saturday. If they had run the Chiefs may have taken first place in the championship division.

The boys ran a good race as well. They finished eighth overall on the strength of their one and two runners, seniors Geoff Melymuk and Kevin Panke. Melymuk finished sixth overall with a time of 16:02 and Panke finished seventh overall with a time of 16:04. Matt O'Donnell, Nick Van Winkle and Michael Patrick finished with times of 17:22, 17:39 and 17:40 respectively. Coach Buckle is pleased with the boys run as their times are coming down week to week. Both the girls and boys will participate in the Vulcan Invitational, a national meet in Alabama on Saturday.

Fayette County ran at Sandy Creek as well and is looking to give their squads experience and build confidence. They did not qualify for the state meet this weekend but have several other chances including the regional meet in LaGrange at the end of October. The girls finished 15 overall out of the 24 team field in the championship division. They were led by sophomore Jessica Tyre's time of 20:58. Senior Carrie Howard and juniors Dana Pete, Clarinda Phillips and Heather Brown all finished within 52 seconds of each other with times of 22:03, 22:26, 22:38 and 22:55 respectively. The team is made up mostly of juniors and currently lacks depth. They feel however that they can make improvements as the season moves along.

The Fayette County boys finished 17 out of a 33 team field with a team made up mostly of sophomores. Senior Preston Pack led the way for the Tigers with a time of 17:03, the rest of the top five is all sophomores. Tre Alverson and Blake Riley finished with times of 17:10 and 17:17 while David Dearing and Adam Lester finished with times of 18:22 and 18:37. Coach Phillips is confident that his team will develop into a stronger squad. The top runners in his other divisions are all sophomores and freshmen, who work hard and constantly make progress. It is not out of the question to perhaps see some of these runners advance to the championship division before the season is out. Both the Tigers and the Chiefs were to run at the LaGrange Invitational on Tuesday in what would be a preview of the regional meet. The race was rescheduled due to weather.

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