Over 1,200 students, teachers and parents competed in the 8th Annual Darlington Festival on Saturday. The event featured 10 races and began at 7:30 a.m. with an open 5K.
Faculty members John Cox, Jessica Parish and Mano Hernandez were among the participants, along with Mano’s daughter Aislan, who is in the second grade at Darlington. Fifth-grader Jack Eady also competed, as did Darlington parents Larry Cagle, Mike Lawrence and Amanda Kinder.
The high school races were highlighted by victories from Darlington seniors. Jesse Baker won the varsity boys race with a course-record time of 16:15. This was also a personal record (PR) for Jesse and three seconds away from the all-time Darlington Record (16:12, Matt Lucarelli, 1995). Ansley McDurmon won the varsity girls race by 20 seconds with a PR of 19:47. Ansley and Jesse were named Darlington’s “runners of the meet” for their outstanding performances.
In the team competition both the boys’ and girls’ teams were Class-A Team Champions. The girls were 2nd overall behind Kennesaw Mountain (Class-AAAAA) and the boys were 3rd behind Kennesaw Mountain and Kell (Class-AAAA). Also running PR’s for the boys’ varsity team were Andrew Hudson (17:38, 20th), Avery Cypress (17:59), Alex Cox (18:08), Spencer Fields (18:11) and Sean Healy (18:16).
The girls’ varsity team had its top six runners in the top 15. Following Ansley were Lauren Hooper (9th, 20:39), Lindsay Evans (10th, 20:43), Anna Cantrell (13th, 20:57), Kinslee Clevenger (14th, 21:00) and Bethany Cagle (15th, 21:08). Anna, Kinslee and Callee Manna (22:08) all ran PR’s.
Chris Edwards led the JV boys’ team with a 3rd place finish and PR of 18:16. Remy Jennings was 5th in the JV girls’ race with a PR of 22:55. Also running PR’s in the JV races were Jonathan Tierney, Charlie Xu, Du Zhang, Polly von Saldern, Shelby Martin, Katie Hutchins, Rebecca Schenk, Liz Darnell and Harbin Peek.
The middle school races were some of the largest and most competitive in the state of Georgia this year. Eighth-grader Jared Deaton led the middle school boys’ team to a 5th place team finish. Individually he was 4th overall with a time of 11:21 for two miles. The middle school girls’ team placed 8th and were led by Mamie Johnson (24th, 13:59). Megan Gavin of North Cobb Christian School won the girls’ race with a new course record of 12:15. Westminster’s boys and Holy Innocents’ girls won the team titles.
The festival also included a 1-mile race for elementary school students. Andrew Scott of the Junior Hoyas won with a time of 5:25. Kennan Milford, a Darlington fourth-grader, was 2nd with a 5:52. Fifth-grader Carolyn Nida was Darlington’s top female finisher with a 7:20.
Full results for all 10 races
Rome News-Tribune Article
Milesplit Article
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