The 2006 cross country season gets started this weekend with the Early Bird Invitational and the Gainesville College Stage Races. As the first official races of the year, fans will get a sense of where local runners and their teams will stand. This should be a very competitive season in the county, region and state and teams from Fayette County should be contending for the top spot in races throughout the year.

Girls

The McIntosh High School girls cross country team won the county, region and state titles last year and should be in position to do so again, although Starr’s Mill will be right behind them in the county and region and Our Lady of Mercy will be a stronger foe in the county race as well, along with Whitewater and Fayette County. Emily Borsare should remain the top runner in the county and region and she more than likely wants to erase last year’s crushing finish at the state meet and go out as the top cross country runner in the state in her final year at McIntosh.

Others to watch in the region from Fayette County will inlcude Borsare’s teammates Rebecca Stokes, Kaia Hampton and Kaelyn Horton, Whitewater’s Kasie Knapper, Brianna Londrillo, Ashten Vogelsberg, Claire Huff and Melinda Thayer and Fayette County High School’s Lilliana Urrego, Natalie McMullin and Rebecca Kollmeyer.
Starr’s Mill graduated some of their top runners from last year’s region 4-AAAAA championship team, but now that Starr’s Mill has dropped down to Class AAAA, Mary Kate and Ginny Hyer, Sara Balckom and Stephani Adams all return and hope to help keep the team right on the Lady Chiefs tail.

Now in Class AAA, Sandy Creek’s Sara Harper and Mia Jones, who were in the top 50 in the region 4-AAAA championship last year, will step up and try to lead the Lady Patriots to a region 6-AAA title.

In 5-A, it will come down to Landmark Christian and Our Lady of Mercy. Elizabeth Gresham is one of the top runners for the Lady War Eagles and just one of the reasons the team won a state title last year. Mercy will be led by the Hohenberger sisters, Lauren and Sarah, as well as team captain Kelsey Oberst.

Boys

On the boys side, there is a little more parity.
Fayette County won the region last year, while Our Lady of Mercy, a 5-A team, won the county meet on a tie-breaker. Starr’s Mill, Whitewater and McIntosh will all have some great runners, which should make the region 2-AAAA meet very close and Our Lady of Mercy’s cross country team desperately wants to unseat Landmark Christian for the top spot in the region and state. Both teams fell just shy of the state title last year with Landmark taking second and Our Lady of Mercy placing third.

Mercy’s Matt Lethbridge was the only individual state champion from Fayette County last year. Others to watch include his twin brother, Jake, Landmark Christian’s Chad Thames, Starr’s Mill seniors Austin Enriquez, Ryan Darr and Clayton Epling and Fayette County seniors David Zitelli and Ryan Kennedy. Whitewater’s Austin Perry and Brian Forero ran well last year and Sandy Creek is hoping for good things from Dustin Page and Sean Williams.

Keep your eyes posted here for results from this year’s cross country races.

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