By By Jeff Byrd/staff writer
October 13, 2002
A wrong turn nearly cost Meridian High's Peter Davidson a win here in the first-ever, Northeast Lauderdale Cross Country meet at Northeast Park on Saturday.
Davidson was well ahead of the field but near the end of the 3-mile race, he was crossed up by a confusing sign.
Initially, Davidson was disqualified. He had clocked an impressive time of 17:17.33. The second place runner in Forest's Brandon LaBue was more than a minute behind at 18:33.74.
After giving out the awards for the junior varsity run, Matthews asked the coaches from the other 10 participating teams to decide what to do.
One coach said that because Davidson was so far ahead and his only advantage was maybe 10 yards, to let it go.
Davidson's time was upheld. The Wildcats then had their remaining four runners all finish in the top 14 to easily win the team title with 34 points.
Starkville was second at 74 points followed by Carthage with 87 and Newton County at 108. Northeast Lauderdale was fifth at 130 followed by Neshoba Central at 136, Lawrence County 164, Clarkdale 181 and Newton High 199.
Newton County's Mandy McGrevey won the girls race in 16:35.39. Not bad for a newcomer to the sport.
Wayne County took the team title with 59 points with four runners in the top 17. Lauren Pittman of the War Eagles was second behind McGrevey at 17:49.85. Ratassia Worsham (18:45.09) was seventh, Brittany Davis was 14th and Jamanelle McQueen was 17th.
Newton County finished second in the team standings with 102 points and Meridian was third at 111. Behind McGrevey were Maggie McDill in 16th, Monica Boyd 21st, Amanda Jones 31st and Lauren McDonald in 37th.
Meridian High was led by Anna Allred who finished 10th in 18:57.34. Karen Allred was 13th in 19:12.30. Ebony Gibson was 29th (20:30.46), Olusola Iskikalu (20:33.62) was 30th and Keisha Anderson (20:56.34) was 34th.
Three other girls from the area who made the top 10 were Ashley Jenkins of Neshoba Central in fourth at 18.19.01. Patricia Tahawah of Neshoba Central was sixth in 18:40.53 and Laurie Vaughn of Union was eighth in 18:50.57.
Neshoba Central was fourth overall in the girls race with 112 points. Starkville was next at 122 followed by Lawrence County 135, Northeast Lauderdale 148, Union 164, Newton 201, Quitman 253 and Clarkdale 301.
Northeast's top runner was Teshae Portis in 15th place. For the Meridian boys, Florian Werner, an exchange student from Germany was sixth in 19:32.94. Thomas Bishop was eighth followed by David Moore in 10th and Alex Jenkins in 14th.
Chris Martin of Clarkdale was fourth in the boys race at 18:40.3. Micah Lanier of Newton County was fifth at 18:41.82.
Neshoba Central's top runner was Eric Truss in 11th at 20:13.62. Northeast's top runner was Alex Curry in 13th place at 20:18.14.