OAKVILLE – Cold Springs' quest to three-peat as the Alabama High School Athletic Association (AHSAA) 1A/2A cross country state champs was denied Saturday by local rival, St. Bernard Prep School. On a sunny afternoon at Oakville Indian Mounds Park & Museum, the Saints edged the Eagles with 58 points to 64, winning the state championship for the very first time.
That concluded a day of excitement, with the Cullman Bearcats having a strong run in Class 6A to claim the runner-up trophy behind the Homewood Patriots.
St. Bernard's one-two punch of Casey Guthery and Andrew Sweeney were right where they have been all cross-country season, around the top of the leaderboard.
Guthery, who earlier in the week signed a letter of intent to run at Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee, blazed the trail to the individual championship by a winning time of 16:33. Sweeney was 14 seconds behind his teammate at 16:47.
They finished ahead of Cold Springs' C.J. Lang, who had a time of 16:49.
The state championship decision came courtesy of the final three runners for the Saints finishing ahead of the final three for the Eagles in team scoring.
Marco Tona grabbed 12th place for the Saints at 17:47, Caleb Guthery 18th at 17:51 and Joey McCarthy 29th with a time of 18:34. For the rest of the Cold Springs scoring, Jared Stanley wound up 10th at 17:24, Trentan Williams 16th at 17:50, Jonathan Collett 22nd at 18:05 and Will Grimmett 34th with a time of 18:50.
The difference between another title for Claborn Campbell's Eagles and the first by William Calvert's Saints was the final runner, with McCarthy finishing five spots ahead of Grimmett.
Casey Guthery, Sweeney and Tona for the Saints and Lang and Stanley for the Eagles earned All-State honors for finishing in the Top 15 individually.
Cullman, who won the Section 5 title the last week, went to work against Homewood, trying to win a state cross country crown for the first time.
Homewood got by the Bearcats with a point margin of 55 to 72, courtesy of their top two runners winning the individual title and taking home third place.
Joey Franklin had a strong showing for the Bearcats with a fifth-place finish at 16:37 and Eli Wilhite in 10th place with a time of 16:58.
The last three runners for both teams were tight from that position as Homewood scored points for 13th, 14th and 26th place with Cullman's Tucker Adkison earning 12th place at 17:05, Jackson Tucker 23rd at 17:22 and Abraham Gonzalez 30th with a time of 17:35.
Franklin, Wilhite and Adkison were named All-State by placing among the fastest 15 runners out of 196 running in the 6A division.
Holly Pond's Jacob Drane got an All-State honor for a 15th-place finish in the 3A meet. The senior recorded a time of 17:40.
Cody Fallin had the best time for Fairview at 18:05, getting 37th in the 5A competition.
The Aggies were ninth out of 12 teams in their classification.
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