Evans cheerleading heads to state meet
Most might have assumed the days of running cross country at the prep level were finished for Anna Bowles and Katie Townsend after they competed in the Georgia High School Association State Meet.
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As it turns out, they have one last hurrah.
Bowles, Townsend and sophomore Sarah Bowles have been named to the Team Georgia All-Class and All-State Team. It's the fourth selection for Anna Bowles and the first for Townsend and Sarah Bowles. Anna Bowles won her second consecutive Class AAAA state championship. Townsend finished fourth and Sarah Bowles sixth in a field of 216 runners.
Lakeside finished third behind Marist and Lakeside-Dekalb. However, the school dominated the roster for Team Georgia.
No other school had two runners named to the girls' roster. The team features only 15 girls and 15 boys statewide.
The team, sponsored by the Atlanta Track Club, will compete Nov. 27 at the Footlocker South Regional in Charlotte, N.C. Georgia is one of 14 states with athletes competing at the Charlotte meet, along with Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The South Regional is a qualifier for the National Cross Country Championships, which will be held Dec. 10 in San Diego.
The top 10 boys and girls from each of four regional contests, advance to the national meet.
Townsend will compete in Charlotte, while the Bowles sisters will run instead at the NIKE Region Cross Country Championships in Cary, N.C., held the same day.
The top five individuals and two teams at the NIKE event qualify for the NIKE National Cross Country Championships in Portland, Ore., on Dec. 4.
Lakeside A squad edges Greenbrier: On Tuesday, the girls' 400-yard freestyle relay teams from Lakeside and Greenbrier put on quite a show.
Lakeside's A squad edged Greenbrier's A squad by 0.92 seconds to claim the event crown.
The finishing times -- 3:48.07 and 3:48.99, respectively -- are significant because they represent the Nos. 1 and 2 times nationwide in the event thus far in the 2010-11 season.
For Lakeside, Carson Crowley, Anne Blair Bonin, Rebecca Pakradooni and Katherine Huff made up the relay team.
Kate Clark, Emily Blair, Leah Haney and Ashley Boudreaux made up Greenbrier's relay team.
Lakeside has three juniors, while Crowley is a sophomore. For Greenbrier, Clark is the only junior; Haney is a sophomore, while Blair and Boudreaux are freshmen.
Evans cheerleaders going to state meet: After earning the Region 2-AAAA championship, Evans' competitive cheerleading squad finished 15th at the State Championships in Columbus, Ga., on Nov. 13.
Considering there were 84 squads eligible for the title when the qualification process started, the 15th-place finish is a solid way to conclude the season.