The Dawson County boys and girls varsity cross country teams competed at the West Hall Invitational Meet at West Hall High School in Oakwood Sept. 15.

The Lady Tigers are currently ranked No. 4 and the boy's team is ranked No. 7 in Class AAA.

The West Hall course had some pavement sections, which can really beat up a runner's legs, according to officials.

However, the course is relatively flat, which led to some great times by both teams.

Freshman Frankie Muldoon had a great meet and led the Lady Tigers with a third place individual finish.

Muldoon completed the course in 20:10. It was personal record for Muldoon.

"I was very happy with how Frankie ran. She looked strong the entire race, a very impressive feat considering she had raced the Saturday before. She was very aggressive in this race and made some key moves in the latter stages to set her up for a third place finish. She's an instinctive runner and is a natural racer," said Head Coach Charles Beusse.

Lady Tiger Marley Hamby also ran well and finished in ninth place with a time of 20:56.

The time was also a personal record for Hamby.

"I thought Marley also had a great race. The biggest thing I can say for Marley is that she is a true competitor and will fight every step of the race. While she's only a sophomore, she's developed into one of the leaders on the girl's side and I attribute much of our team's success to the work ethic that Marley expects of herself and her teammates," Beusse said.

Rounding out the finishers in the Lady Tigers' meet were: Bailey Cotter (22:32), Melanie Rimawi (22:33), Faith Sinclair (22:33), Lindsey Knotts (22:51) and Nicole Chumbley (23:28).

There were 95 runners at the meet.

As a team, the Lady Tigers finished in third place with 102 team points. Taking first place was North Hall with 61 points. In second place was White County with 84 points.

Wining the girl's individual title was Jenna Gearing with a time of 18:35. White County also had a second place finisher in freshman Jaelen Alexander with a time of 18:58.

"Overall, I was pleased with how the girls performed. We treated this meet as a bit of a secondary meet since we entered on tired legs from racing at Marist. However, we had some great performances and pulled out a podium finish against some big schools, which was great. When you can take a team into a meet when they aren't fresh and they still perform at a high level, you know you've got a special group," Beusse said.

On the boy's side, Jacob Poston led the team with a seventh place finish and a time of 16:48.

"I was pleased with how Jacob ran. He looked strong, but you could see a little flatness in him coming off the race at Marist a couple of days prior. Still he ran a personal record of 16:45, which shows how fit he is. When you can produce an effort like that when you aren›t fresh, you know you›re a strong runner and I saw that from him on Tuesday," Beusse said.

Teammates Christopher Shelp (17:41), Garrett Carlisle (18:10), Ethan Clark (18:26), Cody Wood (18:36), Ethan Cowart (18:46) and Raleigh Payne (18:51) also ran well for the Tigers. All of the runners set personal bests, according to Beusse.

Carson Teasley from North Hall broke the tape with a time of 15:58 to take first place.

Finishing in second place was Gerardo Suarez from Johnson at 16:11.

Dawson County came in eighth place as a team with 167 points.

Taking the team title was North Hall with 44 points.

Finishing in second was Chestatee with 115 points.

Rounding out the field in place order were: Buford (122), Johnson (124), White County (134), Banks County (153), Gainesville (160), Dawson County (167), West Hall (220), Union County (251), Lumpkin County (276), North Forsyth (308), Lanier (310), GACS (381), East Hall (416), Lakeview Academy (450), Riverside Military Academy (496), St. Francis (539) and Franklin County (623).

"I thought Chris Shelp and Garrett Carlisle both ran very well, as did the rest of the varsity. Our guys are a young group and we will see big things from them in the next few years. The most positive [thing] was to see them beat West Hall by over 50 points," Beusse said.

Dawson County will not race again until Oct. 1. The team will travel to a meet at Unicoi Park in Helen.

"With a two week break before racing again at Unicoi, we have some time to get some good workouts in. With that, we will be looking at going into a little bit of a transition phase in our training," Beusse said.