By By Todd Thompson, Hartselle Enquirer
OAKVILLE - Summer McBride’s first cross country season came to a successful end Saturday when she earned all-state honors with her 13th place finish at the Alabama High School Athletic Association’s state championships.
McBride, who joined Brewer’s cross country team a week after the start of fall training, ran a 20:37.21 on the 5K course at the Oakville Indian Mounds Park to lead the Lady Patriots.
Falkville’s Krystal Gibbs ran a season-best 22:23.86 for the Lady Blue Devils to earn all-state honors.
The Lady Blue Devils had three runners finish in the top 50 Saturday as Falkville finished 10th overall.
Brewer came into the state meet seeking to make a strong challenge to get into the top five in the team standings after several outstanding performances last week in the Sectional meet in Florence, but the two teams struggled Saturday.
Brewer’s girls finished eighth in the Class 5A race with three runners in the top 50. The Brewer boys’ team finished ninth for the second straight season.
McBride was a pleasant surprise this season after consistently lowering her times through the season. She set a school record in the sectionals.
Emily Trotter ran a 20:58.89 - her best time since the Jesse Owens Classic in October - to finish 17th overall.
Bree Watkins was 49th, while Brittany O’Driscoll, Cheyenne Hale and Lauren Patton rounded out the scorers for the Lady Patriots.
Watkins, the only Brewer runner to run in the state meet last year, ran a 22:59.44 to finish 49th.
O’Driscoll was 100th overall, while Hale and Patton finished 107th and 117th respectively.
Hale, who ran a 27:25.43 in the state meet, consistently dropped her times during the season. Her state meet time was eight minutes off the time she recorded in the Brooks Invitational in September.
Brewer returns five of its six runners on the boys’ team and all of the girls.
All six of Brewer’s runners in the boys’ race finished within 37 seconds of each other, but none was under 18 minutes.
Just a week earlier, all of Brewer’s runners finished in the 17s in the sectional.
Travis Holloman led the Patriots with a 39th place finish after running the course in 18:24.47.
Andy Sanford and Phillip Garrison both finished in the top 50 in the state meet. Sanford ran a 18:29.03 to finish 41st overall, while Garrison was 45th at 18:33.68.
Hunter Eddy was 51st with a time of 18:39.61, almost identical to the score he posted in the state meet in 2007.
Clay Oden finished 58th overall, while Sam Martin was 64th.
The Patriots’ team score of 203 was just nine points behind Beauregard and John Carroll.
Scottsboro dominated the race with five runners in the top 20 to beat Briarwood Christian for the Class 5A boys’ title.
Gibbs and Crystal Carver gave Falkville two runners in the top 25 in the Class 1A-2A race. Carver ran a 23:14.45 to finish 24th overall, seven spots higher than her 2007 finish.
Jessica Gibbs was 50th (24:50.27), while Heather Smith finished 82nd. Bailey Dunkin was 96th.
Falkville’s girls had the minimum of five runners to qualify as a team.
Falkville’s Heath Blanchard was the only Blue Devil runner entered in the state meet. He ran a 20:17.74 to finish 50th overall.
Blanchard was also 50th in the 2007 state championships.