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By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Managing Editor 

HELENA – In their home event, the Helena Huskies put together an impressive showing at the 2021 Helena Invitational, sweeping the boys and girls races with wins.

As the host team, the Huskies placed six inside the top 10 of the boys race and four inside the top 10 of the girls race, while they also accounted for one individual winner.

In the overall team standings, the boys finished with 23 points in a dominant showing with the next closest opponent being Pike Road with 119 points.

The girls race was a tighter contest, but the Huskies still won by more than 40 points with a team total of 24 points, which beat out University Charter School by 55 points.

The Pelham Panthers, Shelby County Wildcats, Montevallo Bulldogs and Indian Springs all competed in the event as well.

The Pelham girls finished third with 87 points as a team, while Shelby County finished seventh. In the boys race, Pelham’s boys finished sixth, while Indian Springs finished ninth, Shelby County 10th and Montevallo 11th.

Helena remained the highlight, however, and specifically Mallory Barton.

The junior for the Huskies picked up a win in the girls race thanks to a time of 19:53.61. It not only marked her first win of the season, but she also set a new personal record with her time.

Teammate Ashlynn Beery followed suit with a personal-record time of 19:58.06, which placed her right on Barton’s heels in second.

Beyond those two, Lindsey May and Olivia Timmons both finished inside the top 10 as well.

May finished sixth thanks to a time of 20:34.58, while Timmons was two spots behind in eighth with a time of 20:52.19.

Madison Tsimpides and Mallory Hamilton added two more in the top 20 for the huskies. Tsimpides claimed 14th with a time of 21:51.90, while Hamilton finished 19th with a time of 22:21.24.

Helena’s Mary Kathryn Bender was the final finisher in the top 30 with a finish of 29th behind a time of 23:32.21.

Pelham’s Lacy Lambert was the highest finisher from the county not on Helena’s team, as the freshman continued an impressive season.

Lambert finished inside the top five by bringing home fourth thanks to a time of 20:15.37.

In one of Pelham’s best showings of the season, Ana Bravo added another top-20 finisher thanks to claiming 13th behind a time of 21:48.44.

Mikayla Leftwich added one more in the top 30 for the Panthers. The sophomore claimed 27th after finishing the race in 23:12.82.

Indian Springs’ only runner in the girls race was Sohana Caplash, who finished in 20th with a time of 22:24.08.

Shelby County’s Ava Tortorigi was the final highlight in the girls race. The eighth grader for the Wildcats finished inside the top 50 at 48th thanks to a time of 26:06.27.

In the boys race, Helena didn’t have a winner, but the Huskies did have three finish inside the top five.

Aspen Warren, Caden Blackman and Braden Burch finished 2nd-4th, respectively.

Warren took second with a time of 16:12.75, Blackman took third with a time of 16:25.26 and Burch finished 16:49.77.

Beyond that, Gage Pritchard finished sixth with a time of 17:09.15, while Larkin Watters and Barrett Draiss finished eighth and ninth, respectively.

Watters finished with a time of 17:14.52, while Draiss finished with a time of 17:25.89.

Joshua Morris and Trent Palladina both finished inside the top 20.

Morris claimed 12th behind a time of 17:56.57, while Palladina finished 20th with a time of 18:36.43.

Mitt Boatman finished the race in 18:37.17 to claim 21st, while Harrison Saylor and Brandon Williams finished inside the top 30 as well. Saylor finished with a time of 18:58.06 in 24th, while Williams finished with a time of 19:06.69 in 27th.

Indian Springs also had an impressive showing in the race, highlighted by Mark Underwood in 14th. He finished the race with a time of 18:07.54 to claim the top-15 finish.

Teammate Hayes Blackstone finished inside the top 50 as well. He took home 46th behind a time of 20:28.20.

The Pelham Panthers finished sixth in the team standings thanks in large part to Thomas Gennari and Nathan Tau finishing inside the top 25.

Gennari finished in 18th with a time of 18:30.30, while Tau finished in 22nd with a time of 18:38.51.

Evans Kahara was also a highlight thanks to finishing 33rd with a time of 19:46.65.

Montevallo’s Sam Adams also put together an impressive race for the Bulldogs. The freshman finished 15th with a time of 18:11.44

Shelby County was led by Gabriel Arias, River Horton and TJ Minton. Arias finished 50th with a time of 20:40.41, Horton finished 52nd with a time of 20:44.80 and Minton finished 53rd with a time of 20:48.54.