Correction: In this week’s print edition we mistakenly reversed the finish times and finishing places of Lumpkin’s two top runners in the state meet. This is the corrected version. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused.
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Lumpkin County High School runners were in the thick of the fast moving lead pack in Carrollton as the team finished fifth overall at the state championship on Saturday.
Leading that local pack was sophomore Wyatt Windham who finished fourth overall with a time of 17:13.
Meanwhile, Ben Sherrill was just one second behind Windham for a sixth place finish at the state meet.
It was a strong finale to a season that saw the speedy junior set a new school record with a time of 16:19 last month.
This finish, said Coach Logan Turner, was the perfect snapshot of the season which saw similar finishes for the two runners.
“Both guys really work well together,” he said. “They’re close friends on and off of the cross country course. There’s a really healthy competitive nature between the two of them and it really helps us out as a team.”
It’s that eager competition that is propelling the team to success, regardless of where the runners finish.
“All of our kids work well together which allows us to be as successful as we are,” said Turner. “Our number one runner all the way down through our seventh runner runs together at practice, trains together, and encourages each other to be successful. Our guys’ ability to work well with each other is the reason why we went from placing 12th last year to placing 5th this year.”
That’s one of the reasons Lumpkin County is quickly becoming a fleet-footed force to be reckoned with across the state.
“I could not be prouder of the way our boys performed. Our guys have improved so much over the course of a year, and I believe we’re just beginning to tap into our potential,” Turner said. “It’s hard to believe our boys’ program didn’t even qualify for State a couple of years ago.”
Last year the team finished 12th in the state. This year the course was set for significant improvement.
“It was a misty morning that was just cool enough to allow our kids to feel like they weren’t straining when they were trying to establish a breathing pattern,” said Turner. “Last year was not fun, it was really cold and our kids really struggled. The course is one of the more difficult courses in the state because of the rolling hills, but our kids were more than prepared to handle that task. We can’t not run into a hill in this part of the state, so hills are as familiar to us as breathing. Our kids embraced the challenge, and we exceeded our expectations as well as everyone else’s.”
And all of this was accomplished in what is becoming one of the fastest regions in this state.
“Four of the top six teams at State are in our region,” said Turner, “which shows how stacked our region is.”
And though the off-season has just begun, Turner said he and his LCHS runners don’t have any desire to sit back and wait for next year to arrive.
“We’re already ready for next year to start,” he said. “And we will continue to build upon our success from this year.”