Breaking It In For Calhoun County

Calhoun County, AL – White Plains’ Conn, Homewood’s Laird win inaugural Wing & A Prayer races at Golden Springs, Homewood sweeps team titles; Oxford’s George, Keur win Hay of a Run races

By Al Muskewitz


Running on a brand-new cross country course can be a little scary at times. No matter how many times you might see it under construction, the terrain and the layout can be a little uncertain.

White Plains’ Maddyn Conn and Homewood’s Andrew Laird didn’t seem to have any issues. They won their respective races rather handily Thursday in the inaugural Wing & A Prayer Invitational on the brand-new Golden Springs Trail.

The race was a collaborative effort between Donoho and Faith Christian on the newest design offered by former coach turned course designer John Moore. And while the race may undergo a name change and definitely a date change next year, the woodland course received good marks from the majority of runners who traversed it and spectators who watched.

Running on a brand-new cross country course can be a little scary at times. No matter how many times you might see it under construction, the terrain and the layout can be a little uncertain.

White Plains’ Maddyn Conn and Homewood’s Andrew Laird didn’t seem to have any issues. They won their respective races by handy margins Thursday in the inaugural Wing & A Prayer Invitational on the brand new Golden Springs Trail.

The race was a collaborative effort between Donoho and Faith Christian on the newest design offered by former coach turned course designer John Moore. And while the race may undergo a name change and a definite date change next year, the curvy woodland course received good marks from the majority of runners who traversed it and the spectators who watched it.

Conn won the girls race in 19:09.67. Laird, a senior, scored his first career win in the boys race (16:34.15). Since it was the first race ever held on the layout, both were course records.

“It’s kind of scary because you don’t know what to expect,” Conn said. We came out here a couple days ago to check it out but it was so confusing because they didn’t have the tape up so we didn’t know where to go.

“I feel like I’m more aggressive (on a new course) because it is new, so I’m like I want to be first, so I just tried my best. I heard (Homewood) was coming, so I knew I would have to push harder.”

Any one of the Homewood boys could have broken across the line first, but this was Laird’s time.

“I’ve been racing with these guys since like seventh grade and it always feels good to race with them,” Laird said. “We’re always going back and forth. We’re always playing around seeing who’s going to win this meet, who’s going to win that meet. It’s just playful.”

Laird played along through the first part of the race, then pushed himself through the second mile and found himself in the lead as they headed for home. He won by 26 seconds over teammate Grayton Murray.

“I didn’t think I had it until I came across the bridge the second time,” the winner said. “You just never know what’s going to happen. I was just going to see what happened, push myself to my limit, and I got across the bridge and that felt pretty good.”

Homewood swept the team titles. The girls had the next seven runners after Conn and 11 of the next 13 to score 20 points; only Jacksonville’s Sarah Sloughfy and Emma Easterling were in between. The boys scored a shutout, sending the first six across the line and eight of the first 10.

“We saw this race was a little bit smaller than what we had been running already, compared to a Huntsville or Jesse Owens style race,” Patriots coach Joshua Donaldson said. “That’s what I talked to the guys about this week: This race is a race we can go out and take chances.

“I wanted them to try something different in this race without the fear of failure, without the fear of something not going your way. If you go and work that second mile because you had problems with that in other races, let’s go work that second mile. Overall I’m really pleased with everybody. The biggest thing I wanted to see is they went out and competed, and I saw that across the board.”

Faith Christian’s Carson Limbaugh set the early pace in the boys race before being swallowed up by the Homewood horde.

The Lions senior was running his first race in four weeks when his right hip flexor gave out in the second meet of the season in Scottsboro, and he tested the leg in a mad dash in the home stretch in a bid for a top 10 finish. He passed Lincoln’s Travis Cooley at the finish for 11th and was on the heels of Homewood’s Hayden Thomason in 10th.

“I felt decent,” he said. “I hit that first five seconds of the sprint and felt great, the last five seconds, if I’d gone another 10 seconds, it would’ve been bad. You saw me kind of limping there when we were done. I was pushing it to see how far I could get. I took it to

the limit.”

Wing & A Prayer

Girls team scores: Homewood 20, White Plains 70, Jacksonville 97, Lincoln 108, Clay Central, 127, Faith Christian 139, Ohatchee 165, Cedar Bluff 237.
Boys team scores: Homewood 15, Lincoln 53, White Plains 121, Clay Central 133, Faith Christian 137, Jacksonville 166, Ohatchee 184, Cedar Bluff 213, Gadsden City 224, Vincent 310.

Hay of a Run

FAIRVIEW – Katie Keur and Noah George were first across the line in their respective races and the Oxford boys won the team title in their final regular-season race of the year.

Keur won the girls race in 18:35.47 and George won the boys race in 16:07.01. The boys placed  their first six runners in the top 25 and scored 60 points. The girls had two of the top five finishers and scored 116 points to finish tied for fourth overall, but were second among 5A-7A teams.

“It was pretty special up here, getting these guys through their last regular-season race of the year,” Oxford coach Landon Delozier said. “Katie and Noah both being able to go back-to-back in their last regular-season races, it was really good .

“Everybody is where they need to be and positioning up for the county. We’ve got an off-week this week and we’ll get a little work in over fall break, coming back firing on all cylinders.”

The highlight of the meet was Evan Somers’ third-place finish. He kicked into another gear in the final 200 meters, passed DAR’s Bailey Kendrick at the wire for third – setting a PR by three seconds – and just missed catching Rene Moreno-Tovar of West Point for second. All three spots were separated by about a second each.

“He sprinted harder than I’ve seen him run in a long time; he sprinted like he was finishing the 800,” Delozier said. “It was insane seeing that. We really haven’t built to that kind of turnover yet, but to actually see him do that at the end of the race and do that at a PR to show he has that kind of energy left means he has a big four weeks ahead of him.”

Girls overall team scores: Lawrence County 23, Deshler 107, JB Pennington 116, Oxford 116, Douglas 140, Oneonta 166, Jasper 178, Holly Pond 224, DAR 240, Fairview 269, Good Hope 282, Winston County 287, Oakman 354, Hanceville 407, Cordova 415.
Boys overall team scores: Oxford 60, St. Bernard 90, Lawrence County 138, Holly Pond 140, JB Pennington 158, Fairview 165, Fairview 165, Oneonta 184, Douglas 189, West Point 197, Cordova 198, Jasper 225, Deshler 297, Rogers 344, Locust Fork 400, Winfield 451, Good Hope 460.
Girls 5A-7A team scores: Lawrence County 23, Oxford 63, Douglas 80, Jasper 91, Fairview 120.
Boys 5A-7A team scores: Oxford 33, Lawrence 75, Fairview 85, West Point 96, Douglas 101, Jasper 120.