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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

NORTH SHELBY – The Oak Mountain Eagles hosted talented runners from around the region at Heardmont Park in the Oak Mountain Cross-Country Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 30, and they kept all of the trophies for themselves.

John Shoemaker took his second-straight first place finish in the Boys 5K and Lauren Cole won the Girls 5K as Oak Mountain clinched both team titles behind their performances.

Shoemaker beat out Munford’s Dakota Frank by less than two seconds with a time of 16:04.26, and Cole won by a wider margin of eight seconds with a time of 19:34.74.

In the Boys 5K, Oak Mountain took the team title with 30 points thanks to every points-scoring runner finishing in 11th place or higher.

Whitt Kilgore finished in third in the Top 15 race with a time of 16:50.99, Bennett Phillips finished in sixth with a time of 17:14.74, Cooper Jeffcoat finished in ninth with a time of 17:26.12, and Zachary Joyce ran alongside Jeffcoat to finish in 11th place with a time of 17:26.45.

Helena finished in third in the team standings as Aspen Warren and Drew Cook led the way in fourth and fifth place, respectively. Warren finished with a time of 16:51.81 and Cook ran a 16:59.13. Josh Howard also finished in 25th place with a time of 18:10.46.

Westminster OM came in fourth place in the race. Charlie Davis led the Knights in 20th place with a time of 17:53.94, and Micah Adams earned 24th place with a time of 18:02.32.

The Knights’ other three scoring runners finished back-to-back. Alexander Montgomery finished in 37th place with a time of 18:33.09, Caleb Pettagrue finished in 38th place with a time of 18:47.27 and Daniel Vansant finished in 39th with a time of 18:51.16.

Shelby County earned eighth place thanks to multiple strong performances. Nick Sykes led all Wildcats runners in 44th place with a time of 19:03.84 and River Horton finished in 48th place with a time of 19:09.47.

MaKonnen Falcon finished in 53rd with a time of 19:21.70, Tucker Busby finished in 60th with a time of 19:33.40 and Kevin Davis came in 64th with a time of 19:33.40 to round out the scoring runners for Shelby County.

Pelham posted great results en route to an 16th-place finish in the team standings. Robert Lewis finished in 46th place with a time of 19:08.98, and the Panthers’ next best finisher was Jacob Horton in 68th place with a time of 19:44.63, with Levi Clardy in 80th place with a time of 20:14.10.

Montevallo’s highest finisher was Nathan Gallagher in 67th place with a time of 23:46.09, and Aiden Glenn finished in 90th place with a time of 25:11.04.

Lyric Weaver was Vincent’s best finisher in 70th place with a time of 23:56.69, and Kash Dobson finished in 85th place with a time of 24:52.94.

Indian Springs’ top finisher was Oliver Middleton in 116th place with a time of 21.20.80, with Isaiah Colorado close behind him in 123rd place with a time of 21.46.84.

In the girls top 15 race, Indian Springs’ Catherine Hinson finished in third place with a time of 20:13.44 and was the closest challenger from the county to Cole’s winning time.

From Oak Mountain, Catarina Williams finished in fourth place with a time of 20:13.44 and Ava Fields finished in fifth place with a time of 20:40.51 to give the Eagles three of the top five runners.

Brighton Bell finished in eighth place with a time of 21:07.28 and Faith Scardino finished in ninth place with a time of 21:08.07 to give Oak Mountain the team title with 27 points after finishing with half of the top 10.

Pelham placed two runners in the top 10 with Emily Webster finishing in sixth place with a time of 20:53.24 and Janelle Ramos finishing alongside her in seventh place with a time of 20:53.55.

Mikayla Leftwich finished in 36th place with a time of 24:04.88 and Anna McDonald finished in 54th place with a time of 25:30.48 as Pelham finished in eighth place in the team standings.

Westminster OM finished in second place in the team standings after all of its scoring runners finished in the top 30. Emily Mungai finished in 10th place with a time of 21:25.48 and Pippa Hussar finished in 13th place with a time of 21:38.84.

Sarah Adams finished in 21st place with a time of 22:44.95, Natalie Porterfield finished in 22nd place with a time of 22:45.87 and Ava Gray finished in 27th place with a time of 23:23.39 for the Knights.

Ashlynn Beery led Helena with the team’s best finish of 11th place thanks to a time of 21:29.08. Abigail Cory finished in 51st place with a time of 25:12.69, Elizabeth Awtry finished in 55th place with a time of 25:33.77, Teia Briggs finished in 59th place with a time of 25:56.90 and Abi Brooks finished with a time of 26:22.88 in 67th place as the Huskies finished in ninth place.

Shelby County’s top finisher was Jennie Owens in 69th place with a time of 26:32.84.

In the girls unlimited race, Vincent’s best finish came from Kalin Cobb, who finished in 21st place with a time of 25:26.04. Montevallo’s highest finisher in the same race was Emma Ramos in 86th place with a time of 31:42.79.