Belgreen runners prep for state meet

By Staff
Kim West
Franklin County times
The Belgreen cross country team will be up early on a Saturday for one more weekend as seven runners will compete in the state meet at Oakville Indian Mounds Park in Moulton tomorrow morning.
The Class 1A-2A girls race will begin at 10:40 a.m., while the Class 1A-2A boys race starts at noon.
Belgreen competed in last weekend's Class 1A-2A, Section 4 meet at Heritage Christian University in Florence.
Eighth-grader Bridget Thompson finished second among 22 runners with a time of 22:11, which was just 12 seconds behind first-place runner Courtney Rutherford of Hatton, while Rosalyn Hargett finished in the Top 10 with a time of 24:44 for the Lady Bulldogs.
Belgreen's Deborah Billingham (17, 28:08), Lydia DeVaney (18th, 28:20) and Martha Billingham (20th, 28:56) rounded out the Belgreen girls' finishers.
For the boys, Jacob Green finished in 23:17 (27th), while Zack Martin had a time of 23:28 (29th) in a field of 33 runners. Athens Bible's Colby Phillips won the boys race with a time of 17:11.
Belgreen, who is coached by Frank Billingham, competed against runners from Decatur Heritage and Mars Hill, Athens Bible, Hatton.
In last year's meet, DeVaney, who has missed much of this season due to a leg injury, finished in the top five with a time of 20:54.13, which was less than 35 seconds slower than the state champion, Palee Myrix of Cold Springs, who ran the 3.1-mile course in 20:22.56.
Hargett also competed last year and scored a top 50 finish among the 103 runners with a time of 23:34.17.