Dylan Forester captured first place at a cross country meet at Buford High School last week.
Forester covered the 3.1-mile event in a time of 16:52 on Oct. 9, easily outdistancing second place finisher Josh Thompson of Buford High (17:08).
Head Coach Charles Beusse commented about Forester: "Dylan Forester had a great race and broke the course record."
It was a beautiful fall afternoon to run. The conditions led to some very fast times for the Tigers. The Buford course is similar to the layout Dawson County might see at the state meet in Carrolton.
Avery Cowart also posted a fast time for Beusse's team. Cowart came in ninth place with a time of 18:12.
There were 69 runners in the boys' varsity race.
Tigers Brian Colin and Brandon Barker completed the race in 16th and 17th place respectively. Colin crossed the finish line with a time of 18:54, while recorded a time of 18:57.
Armando Jimenez (19:21), Mason Carr (19:24), Ben Umberger, Garrett Carlisle, Ethan Cowart and Ben Drew also competed for the Tigers.
The team finished in third place with 67 points. Centennial took the team title with 35 points just edging Buford who scored 39 team points.
"Avery Cowart came up big again for us this week and ran as tough as I've seen him run all season. Brandon Barker also had a very solid performance for us on the boys' side. These guys are the reason I believe Dawson will continue to get better in the years to come," Beusse said.
"The boys 7-AAA region championship is shaping up to be a real battle for second and should be a very exciting race. One thing I can say for this group of varsity runners is that they have grit and heart. I've yet to see them lay down and die on me during a race and they fight every step of the race," he added.
On the girls' side, Bailey Cotter led the way with a seventh place finish out of 48 runners. Cotter completed the course in a time of 22:55.
Carolyn Bland from Lovett won the race posting a time of 21:31. Megan Ward from Buford finished in second place with a time of 21:43.
Isabel Queen and Melanie Rimawi completed the course finishing in 13th and 19th place respectively. Queen posted a time of 23:24, while Rimawi completed the course in 24:03.
Lady Tigers Faith Sinclair (24:19), Ansley Costley (24:37), Jaylee Leete, Dana Little, Brianna Burt and Laryssa Carslisle also raced in the varsity race.
Dawson County as a team just barely missed getting on the podium with a fourth place finish and 84 team points.
Buford won the team title with 22 points followed by White County with 51 points.
"I was pleased with both our boys and girls team performances at Buford on Wednesday. I have been stressing our need to get more aggressive during races and I think that our runners stepped up and did a much better job of that.
"From what I've seen the past couple of weeks, our teams are really starting to come around. They are racing smarter, more aggressively, and developing an understanding that winning races is about picking off opponents rather than trying to run a specific time on a course," Beusse said.
Both teams will race at 4:15 p.m. today at home.