By By Ryan Satcher / staff writer
October 26, 2004
CLINTON The Lamar School boys picked up the pace on Monday afternoon and raced to a second place finish in the MPSA Class AAA Overall State cross-country meet.
The Raiders placed five runners in the top 17 in the meet to finish the day with 60 points. Jackson Academy held off Lamar with 54 points in the meet.
"I told all the fellows before it started to look behind them at the finish line and I told them we have a rendezvous with destiny right back there and to go out and get it," said Lamar coach Ed Abdella. "When they had a rendezvous with destiny, they had a rendezvous with destiny. I thought I was going to cry all the way up the hill to the finish."
The Lamar girls finished in seventh place in the 3,200 meter race while Washington School took first.
In the boys' meet, Lamar held off third-place finisher Presbyterian Christian by just three points in the meet.
"They all knew what they had to do and they went out there and they picked off the guys they needed to pick off," said assistant coach J. Grantham of his team. "They knew they had worked hard and knew nobody was going to take it away from them."
Grantham, a former Lamar cross-country standout, worked with the team while Abdella was serving a tour of duty in Iraq.
"Last year, he was out there with them," said Abdella of his assistant. "He stayed around one more year for me, I guess. He's been there every day. I couldn't do anything without him and I thank him."
The outstanding meet helped finish off a good year for the Raiders in Abdella's first season back.
"This is good because I'm back," said Abdella. "We didn't get to work all summer. I was traveling during the summer and got back in June. I came back in June and I didn't really know anybody on the team. I talked to Cameron Sherrill in August and told him I wanted him to be our captain and I hand-picked Brandon Bennett to be a captain."
The two captains certainly didn't disappoint in the biggest meet of the year.
Sherrill averaged 5:46 per mile to lead the squad with a 17:55.90. He finished in fifth place overall in the meet. Bennett finished seventh overall with an 18:23.96.
The rest of the top five was close behind, led by Drew Robertson who finished in 15th with a 19:41. Wade Covington finished in 20 minutes and Brandon McElroy rounded out the top five with a 20:01.
The other Raiders also picked up the pace on Monday as Lamar finished with 11 runners under 24 minutes.
Denver Harrison (20:57) finished 28th and Nick Brown (22:11) finished 37th. Russ Paterson (22:49), Bradley Bishop (23:00), Patrick Futrell (23:32) and James Holland (23:41) all came in with solid times in the meet.
"I can't believe this," said Abdella. "There is nothing to be disappointed in there and we have all but one runner coming back next year. We've just got to work hard."
Jackson Academy used four runners in the top 12 to take first place in the state. Hunter Murray, Jack Murray, Arash Tahari, Beau Grantier and Brian Alexander were the top five runners for JA.
Presbyterian Christian's Seth Conerly took first place overall with a 16:19.69.
In the girls' meet, Washington took first with 32 points followed by Presbyterian Christian (51 points) and Pillow Academy (83).
For Lamar, Anna Covington ran a 15:29 and Elaine Clark finished in 15:47. Ashley Carmichael ran a 16:55 and Sarah Summers (17:44) and Mary Elizabeth Futrell (18:19) rounded out the top five for the Lady Raiders.