Madalyn Walters captured first place at East Jackson High School on Sept. 18.

Walters crossed the finish line ahead of 121 other varsity runners with a time of 19:48.19.

“Maddie went out slow per my instructions and ran the first mile in around 6:07 which is about 20 seconds slower than normal. She still ran a great race and will improve by region time. If I had to do it over again I would have told her to go out faster,” said Head Coach Brian DeRose about his star runner.

As a team, the Lady Tigers finished in sixth place out of 17 teams. Winning the team title at the Eagle Run was West Hall. The Lady Spartans were followed by Buford and Jackson County.

Also running the varsity race for the Lady Tigers were Michelle Burkett, Rachel Gloeckner, Morgan Williams, Morgan Collett, Bethany Auten and Morgan Gaddis.

“The girls region will be tough. We have teams like Jefferson, East Jackson and North Oconee who are really good. We have got to continue to improve,” DeRose said.

On the varsity boys side the Tigers ran an outstanding race and finished  in second place overall in the team competition, just behind West Hall. There were 24 boys’ teams competing.

The Tigers had three runners finish in less than 19-minutes. The group was led by Tyler Thurmond.

Thurmond finished in seventh place, out of 167 runners, with a 3.1 mile time of 18:08.74. He was followed by teammates Chris Bywaletz (12th place) at 18:29.90 and John Erickson (13th ) at 18:34.28.

Preston Adams also ran a great race and finished in 19th place with a time of 19:00.61.

“The boys ran really well,” DeRose said. “They are really where they should be at this time of year. I was really impressed with Chris Bywaletz. He ran a personal best time, which is almost a minute faster than his time from last season.”

Sam Wentworth, Zach Yarborough and Luke Williamson also ran for the varsity boys.

The team will be at home Sept. 28 against Forsyth Central and North Forsyth.

The meet will begin around 4:30 p.m.