By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Sports Editor 

OAKVILLE – Chelsea, Helena and Pelham all had either their complete teams or several runners competing at the 2018 Class 6A Cross Country State Championship meet held at Oakville Indian Mounds Park in Oakville on Saturday, Nov. 10, and while none brought home championships, there were plenty of standout performances to cap off an exciting 2018 season.

The girls race was the most impressive for each of the three teams, as all three sent their full team to championship meet after qualifying out of sectionals less than two weeks prior.

All three teams finished inside the top 10 of the team standings, with Pelham finishing the highest in fourth and Chelsea the lowest in 10th, while each also had representation individually inside the top 25.

The highest individual finisher of the schools came from Pelham, as Katie Strozier closed out an impressive senior season with a top-five finish.

She was able to claim the fifth-place spot thanks to a time of 19:32.94, which ended up being her fastest time of the 2018 season.

Not too much further down the standings was Chelsea’s Teanna Cason, who has had a stellar junior season. Cason finished the year with an eighth place finish thanks to a time of 20:02.00. The race, which ran fast, also marked Cason’s fastest time of the year.

Those were the only two local runners to finish inside the top 20 of the girls race, but one spot outside of the top 20 was the first Helena runner in Ana Watters, who finished 21st with a time of 20:39.53 to close out her junior season.

Pelham’s Alex Wilkins gave the Panthers a second top 25 finisher with her finish of 23rd after running the race in 20:44.49.

In the boy’s race, Helena and Pelham were the only two that qualified their full teams, and each had noteworthy performances on their way to finishes of sixth and eighth, respectively, in the overall team standings.

Both teams had top 10 finishers thanks to their leaders throught the season.

For Helena, it was none other than Brady Barton, who became the county’s highest finisher in the classification thanks to his finish of fourth with a time of 16:21.

Just a few positions lower was Pelham’s Adam Keller, who closed out his senior season with a finish of seventh after finishing the race in 16:29.21.

Each team also had two more runners finish inside the top 30.

Pelham’s T.J. Gennari, who has also been consistent during his senior season, took home 21st with a time of 17:13.11, while Helena’s Blake Childers ended his junior year with a finish of 23rd thanks to a time of 17:14.89.

Chelsea also qualified two runners for the race and saw Cade Neuberger and Miles Bush finish in 39th and 49th, respectively.