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WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2016
THE COMMERCE NEWS • THE BANKS COUNTY NEWS
PAGE 3B
Cross Country
Competes
Commerce’s Jose Manuel Verde sprints through the
Carrollton High School cross country course at last Saturday’s
Class A Public state meet. Verde finished 25th overall.
Photos by Charles Phelps
Praying before the race
The Commerce girls’ cross country team says a prayer before competing in last Saturday’s
Class A Public state meet at Carrollton High School. The girls finished second.
Tigers, Leopards have strong showings at state meet
BY CHARLES PHELPS
When the Commerce
girls’ cross country team
left the starting line at last
Saturday’s Girls’ Class A
Public state meet at Car
rollton High School, the
goal was to win it all.
When the top-five fin
ishers crossed the Finish
Line, they found them
selves in second place,
which isn’t first. But it was
a “great day,” head coach
Mark Hale said.
The girls were led by
Kate Massey, who finished
second overall. The junior
runner finished with a
time of 22:04.
“Kate ran extreme
ly well to be runner-up,”
Hale said. “1 was really
proud of her time. This
was her best performance
at Carrollton by a signifi
cant margin. I am excited
about her chance to be
no. 1 next year.”
Brittany Webb, anoth
er junior, finished 16th
overall and second for
the team. She finished in
24:39.
Freshman Keila Oso
rio and senior Madison
Rodriguez finished 20th
and 21st, respectively, and
third and fourth for the
team. They were separat
ed by less than eight sec
onds.
Sharon Merlos finished
fifth for the Lady Tigers in
26:23. She finished 27th
overall.
Madison Smith and Ken-
dell Moon finished 47th
and 64th overall, respec
tively.
“Keila Osorio had a
wonderful performance at
the state meet as a fresh
man,” Hale said. “She
has great potential to be
a top runner for us for
three more years, along
with Brittany Webb and
Kate. Madison Rodriguez
and Kendell Moon ran
their last race for Com
merce High School on Sat
urday. They will be sorely
missed. I have loved hav
ing them on the team for
the last four years. Both
of them are outstanding
students and such a joy to
be around.”
Senior Austin Black led
the boys’ team to a sixth-
place finish. Black fin
ished in 19:56.
Jose Manuel Verde fin
ished 25th overall with
a time of 20:09. Chase
Bridges finished third for
the Tigers at 21:29, Kevin
Jandres finished fourth at
21:35 and John Bradley
rounded out the top-five
Tiger finishers, finishing
in 21:46.
“The boys finishing sixth
was quite an improvement
from 11th last year,” Hale
said. “I thought they all
ran extremely hard on Sat
urday. I was most proud
of Austin Black coming
in under 20 minutes. The
future for the boys’ team
looks very promising.”
EJCHS football closes
season on winning note
All season long for East Jackson it was play
well the first half and hope things didn't fall
apart in the second half. If wasn't until the
last two games of the season that the Eagles
found some consistency for four quarters that
gave a glimpse of what might have been.
East Jackson (4-6,2-3) defeated Hart Coun
ty at home Friday night 28-19 by controlling
the line of scrimmage and not turning the
ball over. The victory was the Eagles’ first-ever
over Hart County (1-9,1-4).
Quarterback Josh Adair led East Jackson
with 72 yards on 10 attempts and a pair of
touchdowns. Kentay Rakestraw added 62
yards mshing on nine attempts. The Eagles
racked up 241 yards on the ground.
It didn't take long for the Eagles to send a
message Friday night that they had come to
play. On the opening kickoff to Hart County,
East Jackson converted an onside kick and
eight plays 55 yards later Cody Parr crossed
the goal line to give the Eagles a 6-0 lead as
the PAT was no good. However, it took Hart
County only 38 seconds to respond with a
22-yard touchdown mn to tie the game 6-6.
The 2-point conversion was no good.
The next two possessions resulted in a
fumble by East Jackson and turnover on
downs for Hart County. But with 2:43 to go
first quarter, Hart County scored on a 55-yard
run to put Hart County up 12-6 with the 2-point
conversion attempt being no good. East Jack-
son returned the favor with 11:49 in the sec
ond quarter when Nathan Elrod intercepted a
pass and mmbled 24 yards for the touchdown
and Austin Thomas converted the 2-point
conversion giving East Jackson a 14-12 lead.
Hart County wasn't done scoring either.
With 4:35 remaining in the second quarter
Hart County went on an eight-play drive that
spanned 2:08 as Bennie Allen scored from
six yards out to give Hart a 19-14 lead (PAT
was good).
East Jackson responded with a 7-play
65-yard drive in 1:07 as Josh Adair broke free
on a 24-yard touchdown mn to put East Jack-
son up 21-19 with the PAT going into halftime.
The second half the defenses took over
and it wasn't until 5:24 to go third quarter that
East Jackson found the end zone again going
67 yards on eight plays (aided by a personal
foul face mask) that took 4:17 off the clock
when Adair mmbled in from three yards out
to put East Jackson up 28-19 with the PAT. The
rest of the game saw seven possessions that
ended with points. However, with 1:29 to go
in the game, there was some extracurricular
activity that resulted in one ejection for each
team. After everything settled down and play
resumed, Austin Thomas and Cody Robin
son ended the game by sacking the quarter
back as time ran out.
Swimming
Commerce swim season underway
The Commerce High
School swim team returned
to action last week at River
side Military Academy.
The Swim Tigers consist
of Anna Hardy Kate Massey,
Jessie Pritchett, Samantha
Davidson and newcomer
William Suber.
The relay team of David
son, Hardy, Pritchett and
Massey finished first in the
200-yard medley relay with
a time of 2:03.51. The time
qualified them for state.
The same relay team
also placed first in the 200-
yard free relay with a time
of 1:51.38 and qualified for
state.
Davidson, Hardy and
Pritchett had a sweep in the
50-yard freestyle. Davidson
placed first and qualified for
state. Hardy finished second
and Pritchett finished third.
In the 100-yard butterfly,
Massey placed second and
Hardy placed third.
Massey won the 100-yard
freestyle.
In the 100-yard breast
stroke, Commerce had a 1-2
finish, with Davidson plac
ing first and Pritchett placed
second.
Suber, an eighth-grader,
scored 12 points for Com
merce Middle. He placed
second in the 50-yard breast
stroke. He also placed fourth
in the 100-yard freestyle.
The Commerce girls
placed second with 96
points.
Banks County results
The Leopards put four
guys in the top 11 spots,
led by Samual Davidson’s
fourth-place finish. David
son finished in 17:55. The
team finished second
in Class AA to Bleckley
County.
Griffin Stephens and
Jimmy Cochran fin
ished seventh and eighth
respectively and were
separated by one second
on the stopwatch, 18:08
to 18:09.
Seth Ledford finished
11th overall and fourth for
the team. Ledford’s time
was 18:34.
Hunter Cochran fin
ished fifth for the team
and 25th overall with a
time of 19:18.
The Lady Leopards fin
ished sixth in Class AA.
Allison Smith led the
way with a ninth-place fin
ish. She finished in 23:16.
Destinie Martin finished
38th overall and second
for the team in 25:11.
Maggie Dyer finished
third for the team and
47th overall at 25:33. Josie
Ryder finished in 25:52,
good enough for fourth
on the team and 54th over
all, while Kennedy Smith
rounded out the top five
with a 27:39.
“I am so proud of both
teams,” head coach Wil
liam Foster said. “It is the
best both teams have ever
finished in the history of
the program. The boys
gave it all they had. We
put four guys in the top
11 and five in the top 25.
That is pretty impressive.
The score between us and
Bleckley County was one
of the closest scores of
the day. Depending on the
day the race could have
gone either way. Our boys
gave it all that they had
and that is all I can ask
for. They ran aggressive
from the start and ended
up the second-best cross
country team in the state
of Georgia. We can't be
too disappointed with
that. We had a great race
on the girls’ side as well.
Allison lead the team by
putting herself at the front
of the race. The rest of
the girls stayed near each
other. We just faced good
teams. The girls ran great,
and sixth place with a var
sity squad of no seniors is
a great accomplishment.
Makes me excited for next
year.”
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