The Cross Country team had a great meet on Friday, November 2 for the GHSA 2018 State Championships, bringing home two trophies and three individual medals. The boys took home third place, and the Lady Bears successfully defended their state title.   

After heavy rains on Thursday, and cooling temperatures, the boys race started at 9am for the first race of the two day meet. Led by senior and captain Jack Filan, he maintained the lead for much of the race, but was edged out coming to the finish line. He finished his senior year with runner up honors, improving significantly from his sixth place podium finish last year.     

Second for the Bears, was freshmen Lyle Donovan, who finished with second team all-state honors in 15th place.  Lyle was the third fastest freshmen in the state of Georgia, across all classifications this season. Rounding out the runners on the state team were senior and captain Mark Vandewater, Anders Law ('20), senior captain Carson Ertwine, Deacon Law ('20), and senior captain Sasha Severtson.  

The Lady Bears followed at 9:45, and handily earned their second straight state championship.   They were led by Ashley Sechrest ('20), running at state for her third year, and Grace Gerlach ('19), who finished in 3rd and 6th place to stand on the individual medal podium, recognizing the top ten finishers and first team all-state.   Following the leaders, and finishing on the 6A second team all-state were senior captain Clarissa Beck in 15th place, and Afton Hirschi ('20) in 20th place.  The final three runners for the championship team were scorer Delaney Goodell ('19) in 24th, Isabel Filipek ('21) in 30th, and newcomer to the XC team this year, Kathryn Suplee in 52nd.  There were 218 girls that finished this race, and the Cambridge Lady Bears finished in first with a low score of 64 points, beating second place Harrison by 50 points. 

Congratulations to both teams on a great season, to the Lady Bears on their second 6A state championship, and to Jack Filan and Ashley Sechrest for also earning recognition with a place on the Atlanta Track Club's 2018 XC All Metro team.  This honor is bestowed on the top 21 athletes for each gender that live in the Metro Atlanta area, have performed well at the cross country state meet, and also consistently throughout the fall season. 

Please vote for Ashley & Jack before November 12 here: 2018 All Metro XC Team Voting.

Congratulations Bears!