Dawson County High School Senior Dylan Forester crossed the finish line in first place Saturday morning at Chattahoochee Point Park in Suwanee. The initial race of the 2013 season was hosted by Lambert High School.
Dawson County was the lowest classified team at the meet. The Tigers were competing against Class AAAAA and AAAAAA teams that included: Archer, Alpharetta, Chattahoochee, Lanier, Centennial, Johns Creek, Lambert and Cambridge high schools.
Forester crossed the finish line in the boys varsity division with a time of 17:17 to easily outdistance second place finisher Noah Schaich from Lambert.
Coming in third place was Erik Olsey from Johns Creek.
"Dylan Forester ran what I thought was a very small race, building some separation between himself and a four man breakaway from the field. I was happy with both how smart Dylan was in managing his race and his time as he is about a minute faster this year than he was at the same point in the season last year. Dylan is setting himself up for a great senior season," said head coach Charles Beusse.
Avery Cowart, a senior, also ran a nice race for the Tigers.
Cowart finished in 26th place out of 87 runners in the field. The veteran Tiger ran a time of 18:56.
Joining Cowart and Forester were fellow varsity runners Brandon Barker (20:07), Armando Jimenez (20:08), Ben Umberger (21:25), Cole Simmons (21:26), Ben Drew, Drew Keller and Chris Lafontaine.
"Avery Cowart also had a very strong showing in the boys' race with a sub-19 minute performance. Avery should have a great year and help to be a leader for our program this year. Brandon Barker also ran well.
"Sophomore Armando Jimenez ran his first cross country race and was our fourth finisher. He should steadily improve as the season continues," Beusse said.
Centennial won the team title with 44 points. The Knights placed runners in fourth, eighth, ninth and 10th place to win the team championship.
Johns Creek finished in second place with 67 points.
The Tigers took an eighth place team finish with 180 points. The team finished ahead of Lanier High School.