Calhoun County, AL – White Plains’ Conn, Munford’s Frank repeat as Class 4A champions. White Plains’ girls seconds, boys third in team standings.
By Joe Medley
Munford’s Dakota Frank will graduate as two-time state Class 4A cross country champion after winning his second Saturday.
White Plains’ Maddyn Conn made it back-to-back state championships and has another year to get three while trying to help the Wildcats turn red to blue.
For the second year in a row, they came away as the area’s top performers in Moulton.
Frank backed up his 2022 state title by finishing in 15:45.05, beating Westminster Christian’s Coston Korotky by 12.81 seconds. The Alabama-Huntsville commit will finish his high school career exactly as he wanted.
“That was my goal for this season, was to repeat,” he said.
Frank’s time was off his personal-best pace of 15:24 on the same course.
“I started off, I was second or third until about 800 meters in, and then I tried to get ahead,” he said. “I knew if I could pull ahead and try to create some distance between me and the second-place guy, it would help me.
“Once I came around and got to what they call ‘the snakes,’ the runners behind me caught up to me. I knew I had to gain that ground that I had on them back, so I pushed it up the hills.”
Conn repeated in a personal-best 18:30.32, beating Providence Christian’s Millicent Talmadge for the second year in a row.
Conn won by 36.40 seconds.
“At the beginning, two other girls were right there, and then a little after a half mile, I started to pull away,” she said. “From there, I just took the lead and finished out strong.”
Conn followed her pre-race strategy to run a great first mile, White Plains coach Chase Cotton said.
“She had a similar strategy as she did when we raced here earlier in the season,” he said. “She wanted to off really strong. If she did that, then we felt like the girl behind her wouldn’t be able to keep that pace.
“She wanted to come out and just run her race and not let anybody else dictate anything, and she dominated today.”
In team standings, Providence Christian’s girls edged White Plains’ 62-93 for first place, but the Wildcats outperformed virtual projections that had them finishing third.
“The projected number one team, we beat them today,” Cotton said. “We didn’t have enough to beat Providence today, but seven girls ran their personal bests today. They ran their hearts out.”
White Plains’ boys, led by Josh Duke in 26th place (17:49.75), finished third.
White Plains brought home its second “red map” runner-up trophy for girls’ cross country, and the boys have one. Both teams have strong prospects for next year.
“Only losing one senior and taking second in 4A, that makes us feel good going into next year,” Cotton said. “The boys ran a heck of a race today. They finished eighth last year and finished third this year, and we’re not graduating any boys this year.”
Here are other notable team and individual performances.
Class 6A
Led by Calhoun County champion Isaac Williams’ 37th-place finish (17:03.32), Oxford’s boys finished 12th. Emerson Maniscalco finished 38th (20:36.47) to leads Oxford’s girls to 15th.
Class 5A
Southside’s Evan Christopher finished second (15:43.66) to leads the Panthers to eight in the team standings. He finished 7.82 seconds behind John Carroll Catholic’s Arthur Langley.
Lincoln’s boys had the best finish among area teams in third. Ben Guthrie finished 17th in 16:58.45.
Southside’s girls were seventh, led by Taylor Dortch (34th, 21:12.26). Jessa Nash took 37th (21:22.23) to lead Central-Clay’s girls to an 11th-place finish.
Alexandria’s Kammy Buchanan finished 19thin 20:15.85, and JoJo Watson took 30th in 20:51.17.
Class 4A
Jacksonville’s girls finished fourth, led by Emma Easterling’s ninth-place finish (20:18.37).
Alex Busbin finished 22nd in 17:32.31 to leads Handley’s boys to ninth place.
Class 3A
Glencoe’s Sarah Ponder, an individual qualifier, led area girls in 17th place in 20:23.86, and Piedmont’s Mattie Todd finished 21st in 21:06.19. Piedmont’s girls finished 11th.
In the boys’ race, Piedmont’s Caiden Cardelli finished 39th in 18:30.92. Glencoe’s Owen Beason, an individual qualifier, was the next area runner in 60th (19:17.9).
Class 1A-2A
Pleasant Valley’s boys finished sixth, and Braxton Williams led the way in 14th (17:05.38). Riley Goodson (53rd, 18:27.30) led Donoho to 14th.
In the girls’ race, Faith Christian’s Evie Garrett, Olivia Garrett and Anna Claire Mitchell finished 80th (23:53.69), 81st (23:54.96) and 82nd (23:56.39), respectively. Zelly Wood paced Pleasant Valley in 87th (24:03.97).
