Nov. 11—OAKVILLE — Despite suffering a herniated disk in her back and missing most of the cross country season, Lawrence County’s Katie Mae Coan wouldn’t be denied on Saturday at the state meet.
The senior led the Red Devils to their fifth girls state title in six years with a season-best finish during a hot day. She crossed the line as runner-up and helped beat defending champion Scottsboro 45-53 in team scores.
“This year’s been pretty rough, especially for me since I’ve had some problems with my back,” Coan said. “We’ve been really close this year, been racing pretty good, but we’ve been dealing with a lot of injuries recently. So going into this, we just knew we had to give it our all and put in everything we had.”
The Lawrence County girls were just one part of an impressive day for local teams, who brought home a combined four state championships — two team titles, two individual.
The Athens Bible boys earned a 1A-2A team state championship, beating Cold Springs by a single point, 86-87, to earn their first cross-country title in 45 years.
Individually, Hartselle sophomore Grace Goldman was the 6A champion with a personal-best 18:15, and Brewer senior Rose Betts was the 5A winner for a second straight year in 18:33.
“I was excited for today, a little nervous, but I just tried to keep it all in perspective,” Betts said. “I’m sad this was my last state meet, but I was happy with it.”
Also, Athens Bible’s Kaylie Kay was the 1A-2A girls runner-up in 19:37, Athens’ Kate Sanders took third in 6A girls in 18:52, and East Lawrence’s Isabella Wright finished third in 4A girls with a personal-best 19:29, the first state podium in school history.
“Over the summer I brought my mileage up really high and actually got an ankle injury, peroneal tendonitis, and I was off of running for like two weeks,” Wright said. “I came back and I was faster than I had ever been. I think that break really helped out.” — 5A girls
Betts crossed the line first and Lawrence County’s Coan was second. Lawrence County’s Katie Dumas was fourth (19:31), her younger sister Haley Dumas was 10th with a 20:06. Brewer’s Yeira Guzman crossed 11th (20:06).
Avery Dutton finished 18th (20:47) and Emily LouAllen 20th (20:56) to round out Lawrence County’s championship performance. A team’s top five finishers comprise the team score. Also for the Red Devils, Sarah Dutton was in 21st (20:58), Annabelle Coan was 41st (21:58), Addy Robertson 67th (22:50), Maggie LouAllen 69th (22:55) and Catie Warren 82nd (23:33). — 1A-2A boys
Ethans Barnes led Athens Bible’s championship with a 17:50 12th-place finish. Falkville’s Tyson Johnston crossed the line 13th (17:54), and Athens Bible’s Davis Bradford was 15th (17:57).
Athens Bible’s Eli Britnell was 18th with an 18:15, while teammate Casey Peete ran a season-best 18:43 to finish 26th. Jake Banta was 28th (18:46) to round out Athens Bible’s scorers. Also for the Trojans, Ben Hargrave was 41st (19:08) and Chandler Jones 75th (19:55). — Other top-15 locals
Ardmore’s Tyler Morring was fifth place in Class 5A boys (16:04), Hatton’s Eva Armstead finished 15th in Class 4A girls (20:30) and Athens Bible’s Kylie Murrell crossed the line 12th in Class 1A-2A girls (21:22).
