French Camp hosted a cross country meet and finished third behind two defending state champions in the boys and girls races.
Choctaw County was fifth in the boys varsity race and second in the boys middle school race.
French Camp finished with a team score of 91 in the boys varsity race, trailing defending 5A champion Saltillo (28) and defending 1A champion Tupelo Christian (34). In the girls race, it was Saltillo 23, Tupelo Christian 36 and French Camp 79.
“When you compete against the 1A state champions and the 5A state champions, you're going to come up a little short. But we did well,” said French Camp coach Joe Watkins.
Colby Walters was French Camp's top runner in the boys race, finishing 11th with a time of 18:23.62 for 5,000 meters. He was followed by Stratton Choppala, 26th in 20:21.90; Cameron McDaniel, 30th in 20:42.40; Silas Hodge, 37th in 21:33.87; and Brady Peacock, 45th in 22:57.02.
Watkins was especially pleased with the performance by Choppala, an eighth grader. “He is all of 90 pounds. If you saw him, you would never think that he could run like that. I felt like the day belonged to Stratton.”
Brock Kelly of Tupelo Christian won the race, finishing more than a minute ahead of teammate Causey Simmons with a time of 16:00.84. That was 33 seconds faster than his time in winning the state 1A meet last year.
Averie Jane Gundy was French Camp's top girl, 26th with a time of 23:37.91. Seventeen of the runners who finished ahead of her are from Saltillo, which brought 99 runners – three bus loads – to the meet.
McKenzie Griffin, Maddi Davis, Kelsey Bridges and Olivia Gundy finished together for French Camp in 29th, 30th, 31st, and 32nd, each with a time between 24 and 24½ minutes.
Madison Jones of Saltillo was the race winner in 19:32.06.
French Camp will not run again until the 1A state meet November 4 at Choctaw Trails in Jackson. The Panthers finished fifth for both boys and girls last year.
Choctaw County boys were fifth with a team score of 125. Jared Bellew was 29th (20:37.65), followed by Trenton McGee, 32nd in 20:48.46; Isaac Burdine, 38th in 21:34.21; Braden McGee, 54th in 24:38.02; and Landon Wells, 62nd in 26:40.43.
“I was very, very pleased with our top three,” said coach Andy Young.
The Choctaw County boys middle school team finished second, trailing Saltillo 21-50. Richard Fowler was the team’ top runner in third place with a time of 12:38.71 for two miles.
Choctaw County boys will run in a district meet at Winona October 29 and in the 3A state meet November 4. Young plans to enter 10 runners, including some from the middle school team, in the district meet and seven in the state meet. “We’ll figure out who that is going to be.”
