By BAKER ELLIS / Sports Editor

TRUSSVILLE – Hewitt-Trussville High School hosted the cross-country sectional races for Section 3 of classes 4A, 6A and 7A on Nov. 5. While no Shelby County teams raced in the 4A Section 3 meet, a number of teams raced in the 6A and 7A meets. Five Shelby County teams placed in the top three of their respective races, and now will move on to the state meet taking place on Nov. 14.

Briarwood was the only Shelby County school at the Hewitt-Trussville races to have both its boys and girls teams finish in the top three. The boys team placed second behind Homewood High School and was led by top-10 finishes from senior Griffin Oaks, who finished fourth overall with a time of 17:30.58, and sophomore Zack Howard, who finished 10^th overall with a time of 18:11.88. Briarwood finished with 54 total points, well behind Homewood’s total of 17, but well ahead of the third place finisher as well.

The Lady Lions finished comfortably in third place in their section meet with 72 points, 22 points better than fourth-place finisher Chelsea. Kaite Mier led the way for Briarwood with an eighth-place finishing time of 23:04.01 and Anne Kelly Patrick was not far behind with a time of 23:12.34.

The third place finisher in the boys’ 6A Section 3 race was Chelsea. Chelsea barely got past Gardendale and Pinson Valley, as there was just an eight-point difference between third and fifth place at the meet. Christian Fauer led the way for Chelsea with a time of 18:57.40 while Matthew Gilchrist, Ethan Cohen and TJ Gennari all finished in a clump from 24^th-26^th.

Oak Mountain was the only boys team to make it out of the impossibly tough 7A Section 3 boys race. Cole Stidfole won the meet handily with a time of 16:15.20, better by almost 10 seconds than classmate Tommy McDonough from Hoover. Caleb Van Geffen and Sean Drummond both also finished in the top 15 to help the Eagles hold on the No. 3 spot out of the region.

Spain Park’s girls team also made it out of the 7A Section 3 race, finishing in third place and missing out on the No. 2 spot by just four points to Hoover. Zoe Shore led the way for Spain Park with a 20:03.72 finish, good for sixth place overall, while fellow senior Sarah Sims McGrath finished 10^th overall in 20:15.00 to lead the way for the Lady Jaguars.