Faced with their first test of the season, the Dawson County cross country program traveled to Chestatee Middle School in Gainesville for the 15th Annual War Eagle Invitational along with 21 other teams from around northeast Georgia on Aug. 28. With the varsity boys placing second overall and the girl’s team placing third, Coach Charles Beusse was pleased with the day’s results but saw areas for improvement. “We made some mistakes which is to be expected in the first race,” Beusse said. “I also saw some runners step up.” Cody Wood led the men’s team completing the 5k with a time of 17 minutes 27 seconds, placing him as third overall on the day. Wood was closely followed by Ben McGinnis whose time of 17:33 put him sixth for the day. Rounding out the top five for Dawson were Wiley Dennis (18:29), Luke Hamby (18:45) and Will Mulberry (19:03).