By Nick Nunn
Staff Writer

Last Thursday, the Morgan County Cross Country team competed in the Oglethorpe “Patriot Races” in Lexington. This was their last event before the Region Meet, which will take place this week.
The cross country team competed in three races at the event, the JV Boys 5K, the Varsity Girls 5K, and the Varsity Boys 5K.
Dalton Shaw, an eighth grade member of the MCMS’s cross country team, was the only runner from Morgan County to compete in the JV Boys 5K. He finished the run seventh overall with a time of 19 minutes and 13 seconds.
In the Girls 5K, Yakira Chapman finished first amongst the Morgan County runners in 36th place, completing the length of the track in just under 25 minutes.
The Varsity Boys team did really well, finishing in third place as a team with three runners finishing in the top 15 places. Wyatt Howard came in sixth place, beating out Zach Stone, who placed eighth, for the first time this season.
Gladwin Kreimann finished 14th, and the remaining seven runners for Morgan County contributed to the team’s average time for the race, which was 18 minutes and 26 seconds.
The Region Meet this week, which will take place in Commerce, has been the main focus of the year for the team.
“I’m a little nervous,” said Zach Stone about the upcoming meet.
According to Stone, only the top four teams in each region are invited to the State Meet on Nov. 10, and East Jackson recently moved to fourth place, knocking Morgan County’s team down to fourth.
Despite this setback, the team feels good about this upcoming race.
“I feel optimistic,” said Jack LeClair.
“We’ve been improving,” agreed Kingsley Sitzmann.
The Region 8-AAA Meet will take place this Thursday, Nov. 1 at East Jackson High School in Commerce. 

Printed in the November 1 2012 edition.