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Sports Editor David Roberts can be reached
at sports@forsythnews.com or (770) 205-8981.
SECTION B
FORSYTH SPORTS
Midweek Edition-December 30-31, 2020
@ Forsyth Sports
ForsythSports
fcnsports
FORSYTHNEWS.COM
Photos by Mitchell Martin
For the Forsyth County News
2020 GIRLS
RUNNER OF THE YEAR
2020 BOYS
RUNNER OF THE YEAR
Sophomore surges to win Class 7A title
By David Roberts
droberts@forsythnews.com
How does one stay motivated after winning a state champion
ship?
South Forsyth sophomore Carmel Yonas need only look to her
younger sister, Isabel Yonas.
Carmel, the Forsyth County News Runner of the Year captured
the Class 7A title this season as a sophomore with a 18:48, her sis
ter eight spots behind in ninth place.
“For a freshman, I’m still shocked that she did that,” Carmel
said. “I wasn’t expecting, honestly, that she would get top 10. I
thought maybe top 15 or somewhere there, but she crushed it. I’ve
definitely got to watch out for her.”
Carmel burst onto the scene last year, finishing 11th at the state
meet in her first season with the War Eagles.
Funny enough, Carmel (19:53) was one second faster than her
younger sister, Isabel (19:54), as a freshman.
“Last season I did great, but my goal was to really try to win
state this year,” Carmel said. “That really pushed my goal for that,
and my amazing team too. They were just so helpful.”
It’s enough to keep Carmel motivated despite winning a state
title so early in her high school career.
“Just remember that you can always do better, whether it’s with
place or time,” Carmel said. “There’s always somewhere you can
improve in every aspect of running. Whether it’s being a better
teammate or making sure you’re keeping up with the latest stats,
like who’s getting faster than you.”
See YONAS12B
junior shines in leadership role for Danes
By David Roberts
droberts@forsythnews.com
Ethan Ashley’s junior season didn’t end the way he planned. The
beginning of the season didn’t go according to plan, either.
With COVID-19 challenging the 2020 cross country season and
internal strife straining Denmark’s runners, the Danes were in no
shape to tackle the state’s highest classification.
Denmark finished second last year at the Class 4A state champi
onships and expected to return all five of its top runners, only to
lose one of its top runners, Karthik Kochuparambil, before the sea
son started.
It was July and the Danes had one month before the start of the
season. Ashley called the team’s training “terrible.”
So Ashley decided to take charge.
“There’s no team bonding, there’s nothing going on and every
body is just fighting right now,” Ashley said. “So I was like, ‘All
right, I’ll see what I can do.’ I ended up taking me and the top
five up to my great-uncle’s house up in Tennessee with some
crazy hills, so it was just hills and swimming all day. We did a lot
of running, a lot of hard runs. If you ask the guys, that’s probably
the hardest workouts we did all year. We did that kind of work
out, then we’d sit around dinner and talk about goals for the sea
son.”
It was the impetus for a Denmark cross country team that took
Class 7A by storm this year and spent multiple weeks as the top-
ranked team in the state.
The Danes won the Warpath Invitational in October, then placed
See ASHLEY 12B
TENM&RK
