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Runner-up finishes from Remy Richards, Weaver Caldwell and Catherine Hinson and a third-place time from Oak Mountain’s John Shoemaker highlighted a long list of All-State and record-breaking performances at the state championship. (Contributed)

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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

OAKVILLE – After working all season to get to the AHSAA state championship meet, local runners gave it their all and ended the season among the best in the entire state.

While no county teams won individual or team championships, multiple runners earned top honors for their performances at Oakville Indian Mound Park on Saturday, Nov. 9.

Spain Park’s Remy Richards, Westminster OM’s Weaver Caldwell and Indian Springs’ Catherine Hinson each earned runner-up finishes and Oak Mountain’s John Shoemaker came in third place, highlighting numerous top 10 finishes and All-State performances from county athletes.

Read more for highlights from each county school that competed in the state championship.

Class 7A:

Oak Mountain’s Shoemaker finished in third place in the 7A boys race with a time of 15:26.52. Huntsville’s Eric Moore won the race with a time of 14:52.81.

Cooper Jeffcoat came in 25th place with a time of 16:22.07. The other Eagles scoring runners included Sam Trammel in 32nd place with a time of 16:33.60, Zack Joyce in 37th place with a time of 16:41.85 and Luke Marvin in 43rd place with a time of 16:49.11.

Oak Mountain finished in fifth place in the team standings with 135 points.

Thompson had three individual competitors in the race. Eli Wagner came in 117th place with a time of 18:19.23, Kohen Jenkins McGill took 152nd place with a time of 19:08.46 and Colby Prosser finished in 158th place with a time of 19:26.40.

As for the girls race, Oak Mountain’s Ava Fields took home a top-10 finish as she came in 10th place with a time of 19:13.40.

Catarina Williams secured 28th place with a time of 19:52.49, Chloe Jeffcoat came in 43rd place as a seventh grader with a time of 20:20.07, Faith Scardino was right behind her in 44th place with a time of 20:25.45 and Hayley Datema earned 48th place with a time of 20:31.31.

With five top-50 finishes, the Eagles came in sixth place in the team standings with 164 points.

Thompson was represented by six different individual qualifiers, led by Delaney Paganelli as the eighth-grader earned 21st place with a time of 19:40.70.

Luna Montiel-Duenas and Addison Zoebelein finished neck-and-neck as Montiel-Duenas took 66th place with a time of 21:03.01 and Zoebelein was in 67th place with a time of 21:03.25.

The other notable times from the Warriors were Hanna Sheffield in 84th place with a time of 21:29.44, Alyssarae Bustamante in 90th place with a time of 21:39.04 and Ansley O’Neal in 147th place with a time of 23:41.99.

Class 6A:

Spain Park’s Richards secured one of the best finishes in the county as she came in second place in the 6A girls race with a time of 18:15.55. That was behind only state champion Emma Brooke Levering from Homewood, who won with a time of 17:46.94.

In all, four county runners came in the top 10. Pelham’s Emily Wester came in fifth place with a personal-best time of 18:42.86, Spain Park’s Madison Harvey finished in eighth place with a time of 18:48.81 and Briarwood’s Mary Grace Parker took 10th place with a time of 19:04.14.

Lena Anne Parker was right behind Mary Grace in 11th place as the Lions junior finished with a time of 19:05.50.

Elsewhere for Briarwood, Allie Hale came in 16th place with a time of 19:15.42, Emmie Hale finished in 74th place with a time of 21:28.45 as an eighth grader and Anna Veal came in 114th place with a time of 22:43.36 to secure a fourth-place finish in the team standings.

Janelle Ramos joined her Panthers teammate Wester in the top 15 as she came in 15th place with a time of 19:08.58.

Spain Park came in fifth place in the team standings with 185 points as a result of Richards and Harvey’s top-10 finishes and other great times from Leighton Zelwak, Sarah Kate Phillips and Mackenzie Colbaugh.

Zelwak came in 56th place with a time of 20:58.35, Phillips finished in 73rd place with a time of 21:26.21 and Colbaugh secured 94th place with a time of 22:11.51.

Aldrie Ridgon made Helena history as the seventh-grader and sectional champion came in 18th place with a time of 19:31.78, which broke the all-time school record.

The other Huskies scoring runners were Jaid Spears in 154th place with a time of 23:53.82, Aubrey Kennedy in 159th place with a time of 23:55.75, Rosalie Rhodes in 180th place with a time of 24:25.81 and Ella Carr in 191st place with a time of 24:51.96.

Chelsea had two top 30 finishes as Hannah Quick came in 23rd place with a personal-best time of 19:45.91 and Juliette Edwards finished in 29th place with a time of 19:55.95.

Calera’s Keanna Hart came in 104th place with a time of 22:28.56.

In the boys race, Chelsea brought home two finishes in the top 10 as Conner Campbell had a personal-record time of 15:58.35 to come in eighth place while Hudson Williams took 10th place with a time of 15:59.34.

The Hornets rounded out their top five with Luke Dollar in 101st place with a time of 18:03.31, Carson Campbell in 115th place with a time of 18:21.56 and Anden Peek in 116th place with a time of 18:24.07. Chelsea came in 11th place with 293 points.

Spain Park’s Brody Ahlemeyer led his team with a 21st-place finish after earning a time of 16:33.70.

Caleb Landers came in 61st place with a time of 17:20.87, Luca Zellner earned 102nd place with a time of 18:05.48, Finn Carter secured 105th place with a time of 18:09.97 and Stephen Schneider came in 133rd place with a time of 18:38.19.

Helena was led by Josh Howard in 47th place with a time of 17:03.61, and Camp Herndon came in 60th place with his time of 17:20.62, just beating out Landers at the line.

Gavin Dreher finished in 173rd place with a time of 19:28.94, Caleb Williford took 193rd place with his time of 20:10.95 and Ethan Powell rounded out the scoring runners in 206th place with a time of 20:55.36.

Briarwood’s top finisher in the boys race was Kolby Day after he came in 51st place with a time of 17:09.25. Whit Thornton finished in 63rd place with a time of 17:23.69, Lucas Meservey came in 74th place with a time of 17:31.26 and Noah Genin finished 81st with a time of 17:38.09.

Seventh-grader Harrison Moore capped off the Lions scoring runners in 184th place with a time of 19:50.57 as Briarwood came in 15th place with 359 points.

Calera had two runners compete as individuals. Dustin Best finished in 214th place with a time of 21:15.75 and Cooper Manning claimed 221st place with a time of 21:38.49.

Class 5A:

Westminster OM earned a pair of top 10 finishes in the boys race, including a runner-up finish from Caldwell. The junior secured second place with a time of 16:15.10, just 14 seconds off Scottsboro’s Ryder Linville and his winning time of 16:01.50.

Quinn McCurry joined Caldwell in the top 10 as he came in eighth place with a time of 16:29.67.

The Knights also had scoring performances from Aiden McEachran in 24th place with a time of 17:00.79, Daniel Vansant in 26th place with a time of 17:03.82 and Caleb Pettagrue in 55th place with a time of 17:59.26. Riley Rehberg finished just behind Pettagrue in 56th place with his time of 18:01.63.

Westminster OM came in third place in the team standings behind those performances as they earned 97 points.

Shelby County came in eighth place as a team after Carter Wood led the Wildcats with a 28th-place time of 17:09.90.

MaKonnen Falcon came in 45th place with a time of 17:45.27, Alex Fleming earned 51st place with a time of 17:53.06, Zachary Hallmark secured 54th place with a time of 17:58.86 to beat out Pettagrue by a second and Kevin Davis finished in 69th place with a time of 18:29.38.

In the girls race, Emily Mungai led the Knights as she came in seventh place with a time of 19:38.96.

Maris Sellers and Savannah Schleicher finished back-to-back while both securing top 15 finishes. The seventh-grader Sellers came in 13th place with a time of 20:19.35 and the eighth-grader Schleicher was right behind her in 14th place with a time of 20:20.51.

Sarah Adams and McKenzie Bell rounded out the scoring runners for Westminster OM, with Adams taking 22nd place with a time of 21:17.17 and Bell earning 35th place with her time of 21:56.21.

With all scoring runners finishing in the top 35, that secured a third-place finish for the Knights in the girls team standings as well as they won the tiebreaker over Providence Christian School with 79 points.

Pippa Hussar and Elloree Roberts served as the tiebreakers as Hussar came in 49th place with a time of 22:30.58 and the eighth-grader Roberts finished in 50th place with a time of 22:34.35. Providence’s tiebreakers came in 65th and 98th place.

Kathryn Peterson led Shelby County with a 45th place finish as she crossed the line with a time of 22:22.81.

Seventh grader Lorelei Hallmark finished in 62nd place with a time of 23:01.84, with Josie Payne right behind her in 63rd place with a time of 23:02.94. Gracie Wible earned 89th place with a time of 24:41.83 and Jennie Owens secured 95th place with a time of 25:18.24.

That helped the Wildcats come in 11th place in the team standings with 266 points.

Class 4A:

Indian Springs walked away with some big finishes in the Class 4A championship, including Hinson, who came in second place in the girls race with a time of 19:01.10. White Plains’ Maddyn Conn won with a time of 18:15.48.

Eva Good came in 70th place for Springs with a time of 23:29.26, Harper Breitenfeld secured 74th place with a time of 23:44.69, Lucia Kochlowski finished in 109th place with a time of 25:13.74 and Madeline Schmidtke rounded out the scoring runners in 122nd place with a time of 25:56.26.

On the boys side, Oliver Middleton represented Indian Springs as an individual competitor with a 66th-place finish behind his time of 19:08.01.

Class 1A-2A:

Vincent had multiple runners compete as individual competitors in the Class 1A and 2A championship.

Kash Dobson finished in 132nd in the boys race with a time of 23:04.42.

Kalin Cobb earned 96th place on the girls side with her time of 26:08.19 and Kaleigh Willis took 120th place with a time of 28:59.09.

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