The boys and girls cross country teams competed at the Lambert River Run at Chattahoochee River Park on Saturday.

The Oct. 10 meet was hosted by Lambert High School in Forsyth County.

Under rainy and misty conditions the Lady Tigers pulled off a sixth place finish out of 13 competing teams.

Dawson County earned 166 points.

Head Coach Charles Beusse's squad was one of only a couple of Class AAA teams at the meet.

"Typically, the course at Chattahoochee Point Park that Lambert uses is a great course because it's so flat and often lends itself to some fast times. All year I've looked forward to this meet because I expected that it would be a great place for many of our runners to set PRs. However, the weather had other plans for us on Saturday," Beusse said.

"Weather was a huge factor in terms of times. The rain we had on Friday night basically turned the course into a mud pit. Many areas required runners to run through ankle deep water and mud and really slowed down times. However, that's just part of the sport. It was a true cross country meet where things became all about placement and times became irrelevant," he added.

Taking first place on the varsity girls' side was West Forsyth with 35 points. The Lady Wolverines placed four runners in the top 10.

Flowery Branch took second place with 80 points.

There were 13 teams competing.

Leading the Lady Tigers was freshman Frankie Muldoon, who turned in a time of 20:09, good enough for a fourth place finish.

"Frankie had another great race for us on Saturday. She worked herself into good positioning in the early stages of the race and held within the top five for the entire race," Beusse said. "I really see something special in Frankie and I don't toss comments like that around very often. She's very coachable, but she also has a competitive spirit which is a characteristic all great runners have, but something that can't be taught.

"She's still young and has lots to learn about racing, but with time and more experience, she will pick up those skills."

Marley Hamby, a sophomore, also ran a great race and finished in 12th place with a time of 20:56.

"Marley had a great race for herself and I was really just as impressed with her as I was with Frankie. She just really turned it on for us Saturday and got the job done," he said. "That should be a huge confidence boost for her going into region and state. Marley is still young as well and is developing into a great runner."

There were 129 runners in the varsity race.

Also running for Dawson County were: Faith Sinclair (22:39), Melanie Rimawi (22:54), Lindsey Knotts (23:53), Ansley Costley (24:01), Isabel Queen (24:04), Nicole Chumbley (24:20), Iris Delira (25:02) and Dana Little (25:41).

Breaking the tape in first place was Katie Myers from Centennial with a time of 19:55.

Second place went to Gabrielle Gusmerotti from Norcross who posted a time of 20:00.

In the junior varsity girls race were Bailey Cotter (24:22) and Heidi Collett (29:41).

For the varsity boys, Jacob Poston posted the fastest time for the Tigers. He covered the 3.1-mile course in 17:13.

The time was good enough for ninth place out of 134 runners.

Poston was the top Class AAA runner in the meet.

"I was pleased with how Jacob ran. There were some very strong runners in the field so to be in the top 10 was great. I think the conditions made things a little more difficult on Jacob. He relies heavily on his speed in racing and the conditions of the course took away from his ability to use that strength. He's setting himself up well going into region and state," Beusse said.

Winning the championship was John Green from West Forsyth with a time of 16:00.

Runner-up went to Jonathan Schwind from Lambert with a time of 16:04.

Other runners competing for Dawson County were: Christopher Shelp (18:03), Cody Wood (18:22), Ethan Clark (19:29), Ethan Cowart (19:55), Garrett Carlisle (19:56) and Jacob Sinclair (20:01).

Wood set a personal record at the meet.

"I thought Cody (Wood) had a great race and picked up the slack for us since we had two boys racing sick and they didn't perform nearly as well as normal as a result," Beusse said.

The Tigers as a team placed seventh with 222 points.

Lambert took the team championship with 40 points.

Second place went to Flowery Branch with 86 points.

"Sickness and injury has plagued us the past few weeks, but I think we are starting to turn a corner with that hopefully. Going into region, the girl's team will be at full force with Bailey Cotter returning off of injury," Beusse said. "Sickness has spread though the boy's team, but hopefully we are almost past that. We will need everyone healthy at region and state.

"We have some critical workouts coming up, which should place us in a good position for the championship portion of the season."

Up next will be the Region 7-AAA meet at Banks County High School on Oct. 27.