An enthusiastic crowd saw the 2005 Fayette County Cross Country Championships live up to their advance billing. The championship races at the Sandy Creek 5K (3.1mile) course were the most exciting cross country races every witnessed in Fayette County according to local coaches.

McIntosh Lady Chiefs ranked number one in Georgia (4A) won the county championship team title with 24 points placing runners 1,3,4,7 and 9. Starrs Mill Panthers were close behind finishing second with 37 points placing runners 2,5,6,11 and 13. Third place went to host Sandy Creek Patriots with 134 points placing 17,20,28,29 and 40.

Emily Borsare from McIntosh was crowned Fayette County Champion in an excellent time of 17:46 fortifying her second place ranking in Georgia steps behind first. Borsares run is even more impressive considering she appeared to lengthen her lead with each passing kilometer all the way to the finish with no other runners in sight to push her.

The exciting boys team championship race could not have been closer. Fayette County Tigers and Our Lady of Mercy Bobcats both finished with 56 points. FCHS placed their runners 5,6,7,12 and 26 while OLM placed runners 3,4,10,19 and 20. In cross country ties are broken by the sixth team member first to cross the finish line. Justin Yakubesan, OLMs sixth Bobcat runner was the tiebreaker assisting his team to victory.

The race for third place was just as close with both Starrs Mill Panthers and MacIntosh Chiefs finishing with 63 points. SM placed runners 1,11,13,16 and 22 while MHS runners finished 2,9,14,15 and 23. The tiebreaker was SMs Kento Masuyama.

Austin Enriquez from Starrs Mill led the boys championship race from start to finish with a winning time of 16:36. Enriquez covered the first mile in less than five minutes and averaged a swift 5:22 per mile pace for the entire course.

Fayette county high school runners and their teams look poised to shine even brighter with the regional and state championships just over the horizon.

The medal winners (top 20 finishers) for the boys were:
Austin Enriquez, SMHS, 1, 16:37
Michael Mateos, MHS, 2, 17:12
Jake Lethbridge, OLM, 3, 17:18
Matt Lethbridge, OLM, 4, 17:43
John DeCotis, FCHS, 5, 17:47
Ryan Kennedy, FCHS, 6, 18:02
David Zitelli, FCHS, 7, 18:02
Andrew Henry, SCHS, 8, 18:09
Matt Trozel, MHS, 9, 18:10
Thomas Raville, OLM, 10, 18:12
Ryan Darr, SMHS, 11, 18:13
Michael Blankenbeker, FCHS, 12, 18:14
Michael Kaddon, SMHS, 13, 18:19
Cormac Carolan-Tolbert, MHS, 14, 18:23
Chris Cage, MHS, 15, 18:29
Matthew Beeson, SMHS, 16, 18:29
Jason Veclotch, SCHS, 17, 18:37
Austin Perry, WHS, 18, 18:37
Matt Fitzgerald, OLM, 19, 18:37
Tim Kennedy, OLM, 20, 18:39

The girls medalists were:
Emily Borsare, MHS, 1, 17:46
Ginny Balckom, SMHS, 2, 20:32
Erica Hughey, MHS, 3, 20:40
Rebecca Stokes, MHS, 4, 20:41
Mary Kate Hyer, SMHS, 5, 20:51
Kristin Horton, SMHS, 6, 21:06
Kaia Hampton, MHS, 7, 21:10
Lauren Hohenberger, OLM, 8, 21:16
Kristy Espiau, MHS, 9, 21:17
Kaelyn Horton, MHS, 10, 21:38
Ginny Hyer, SMHS, 11, 21:40
Claire Bergstrom, FCHS, 12, 21:54
Aya Ishizu, SMHS, 13, 21:59
Stefani Adams, SMHS, 14, 22:25
Caitlin Alverson, FCHS, 15, 22:30
Savini Santha, OLM, 16, 22:32
Christine Dunphy, SCHS, 17, 22:33
Brianna Kourajian, SMHS, 18, 22:38
Sarah Balckom, SMHS, 19, 22:45
Ginny Harper, SCHS, 20, 22:56

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