Photo by Sam Chandler.
Cross country
The Mountain Brook girls won their 13th straight state cross-country title.
Mountain Brook senior Frances Patrick trailed closely behind the leaders for the first two miles of the Class 7A girls race at the AHSAA State Cross Country Championships on Nov. 14.
The defending state champion on the track in the 3,200 meters, Patrick was biding her time, waiting for the perfect moment to make her move.
And then in the blink of an eye, it happened.
Precisely planned, Patrick drilled though the challenging series of hills on the back part of the Oakville Indian Mounds course, quickly gapping the field and eventually running away with a decisive18-second victory, crossing the line in 18:18.78 and claiming the first state cross-country title of her career.
“Unbelievable,” Mountain Brook coach Michael McGovern said. “I’m so happy for her because she’s had to take on a lot, kind of being our only senior and having to take on that leadership role kind of by herself, and at the same time, lead our team out here on the course, too.”
Behind Patrick’s first-place finish and a trio of All-State performances from Anna Grace Morgan (5th), Anna Balzli (11th) and Tessa Allen (14th), the Spartan girls cruised to a 36-point victory over runner-up Hoover and clinched their 13th-consecutive state title.
“My team ran awesome, and we put it all on the line for each other,” Patrick said.
With the triumph, the Mountain Brook girls captured their 23rd state cross-country championship, the most in Alabama history, while moving into a tie with Scottsboro for the second-longest streak of consecutive state crowns.
What’s even more impressive, however, is how they did it.
Drawing from their deep talent pool, three of the Spartans top-six finishers – Allen, Lily Hulsey and Lily Martin – are all eighth graders.
“It’s exciting,” McGovern said. “We see ourselves as a seven through 12 program, and that’s what it turned into today.”
Unable to replicate identical results, the Mountain Brook boys fell just short of ending their three-year championship drought.
Although Drew Williams (7th), Charlie Slaughter (9th) and Gram Denning (13th) collected All-State honors, the Spartans finished runner-up to Auburn High School, losing by only eight points.
“Honestly, I don’t know if we could’ve asked for much more,” Williams said. “Really, to win, we needed a mistake on Auburn’s part and that just didn’t happen.”
Led by individual state champion Paul Barlow, Auburn placed three runners in the top 10 and four in the top 15.
“We ran our best today,” McGovern said, “and you know, Auburn’s best was a little bit better than ours today.”
Williams and Slaughter each broke through the 16-minute barrier in the championship race, posting times of 15:53.15 and 15:55.12, respectively, while seven of the team’s eight other runners ran 17:00 or under.
Even though they couldn’t cap their season with a title, watch out for the Spartan boys in 2016, as core building blocks are in already place to return the team to state supremacy.
“We’re only losing one out of that group for next year, so we’ll have nine back out of that ten,” McGovern said.
