Panther runners perform well at state
Courtesy of @starrmillhs (Instagram)
Starr’s Mill boys’ cross country team stands on the podium after finishing runner-up in this year’s AAAAA State Championship. The top finisher on the boys’ team was junior Colton Olvey, and the top finisher for the girls was junior Darby Olive.
November 7, 2019
Last Friday, Starr’s Mill cross country teams competed in the AAAAA State Championships in Carrollton, Georgia. The boys followed up last year’s state championship finishing second overall this year, and the girls finished fourth overall.
“Colton Olvey was the first boy to finish and he came in 11th place, so just short of the top ten position,” head coach Kelly Rock said.
The top three finishers on the boys’ team were Olvey, freshman Evan McConnell, and junior Joseph Muzzillo. Olvey finished 11th overall with a time of 17 minutes, 24.04 seconds. McConnell finished 16th overall with a time of 17:40:42. Muzzillo finished 19th overall with a time of 17:45:94.
The top finishers overall in boys’ AAAAA were senior Athanasius Tesfaye from Loganville High School (16:19:27), senior Domonic Macias from Union Grove (16:19:65), sophomore Christian Gonzalez from Decatur High School (16:24:37), junior Collin Jones from Carrollton High School (16:44:59), and senior Bram Mansbach from Grady (17:06:50).
“[Darby] was injured at the region and we didn’t want to make the injury worse by having her run at the region,” Rock said.
Despite not running at region, junior Darby Olive was the highest finisher for Starr’s Mill, placing seventh overall with a time of 19 minutes, 58.01 seconds. Freshman Hailey Ross finished 15th overall with a time of 20:42:62. Junior Allie Walker finished 31st with a time of 21:32:26.
“Ultimately it didn’t matter that [Darby] didn’t run at region,” Rock said. “We still had that state position.”
The top finishers from the girls’ AAAAA included senior McKenna Trapheagen from Woodland (18:27:67), senior Mackenzie Walls from Veterans High School (18:55:81), junior Elle Mezzio from Riverwood International Charter School (19:35:09), senior Megan Uszynski from McIntosh High School (19:48:07), and senior Lucy Yeomans from Clarke Central (19:52:45).
The Starr’s Mill boys’ team will lose three runners to graduation — Seth Miller, Thomas Hindy and Matt Norton. On the girls’ team, however, only Lexi Edwards will graduate.
To see the full results from the AAAAA GHSA State Cross Country Championships, click here.
