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Ladies win meet in Ellijay
Boys finish fourth
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Dawson County High School Head Cross Country Couch Coach Charles Beusse's teams traveled to Ellijay on Sept. 27 to participate in the Clear Creek Trail Invitational.

The girl's team won the team championship on the hilly and tough 3.1-mile course.

The Lady Tigers posted a team score of 58 points to outpace runner-up finisher Cartersville High School who collected 66 points.

Other teams running the race were: Chestatee, Fannin County, Dalton, Gilmer County, Murray County and Sonoraville.

Leading the ladies team was freshman Marley Hamby with a third place finish and a time of 23:12. Crossing the line in 10th place was Faith Sinclair with a time of 24:36.

Winning the individual title, with a time of 21:56, was Lindsey Grater from Chestatee High School.

Melanie Rimawi (24:52), Cassidy Lecours (25:10) and Ansley Costley (25:22) finished out the top five runners for Dawson County.

There were 57 girls running in the event.

"It was great to see our girls step up and pick up a win," Beusse said. "These girls are the real deal and they are only getting better every week. I'm excited for the coming weeks and to see how these ladies can stack up at region and state. I was proud of each and every one of them today."

Also running in the varsity girl's race for Dawson County were: Nicole Chumbley, Dana Little, Isabel Queen and Iris Delira.

Dawson County is currently ranked No. 5 in Class AAA.

For the boy's team, Jacob Poston led the way with a sixth place finish and a time of 18:42.

The Tigers came in fourth place overall out of nine teams. The Tigers posted a team score of 75.

Dawson County finished just five points shy of third place finisher Chestatee (70) and nine points behind Cartersville (66).

Winning the team title was Dalton High School with a team total of 59 points.

Poston was followed by Christopher Shelp (19:18), Brandon Barker (19:34), Owen Jordan (19:35) and Garrett Carlisle (20:08).

Also running for the Tigers in the varsity event were: Seth Miller, Jacob Sinclair, Ben Umberger and Chris LaFontaine.

"All of these guys ran well and really attacked the course as planned," Beusse said.

Taking the individual crown was Jack Carnes from Chestatee, with a winning time of 18:23.

Dawson County finished first of all the Class AAA teams in the meet. The Tigers are currently ranked No. 7 in Class AAA.

"Overall, today was good. I think we looked strong and in a good position as we begin to focus on region and state," Beusse said.

Both teams will travel to Unicoi State Park tomorrow, followed by East Jackson on Oct. 7.

"We will have our work cut out in those races and be facing some of the best AAA teams in the state. However, I think these races are just what we need to better prepare for championship racing."

The second-year coach said that he will be incorporating some new training into both teams practice plans over the next couple of weeks.

"We will focus more on speed and it should help to sharpen our runners and prime them to peak in late October and early November," he said.