CROSS COUNTRY: EJCHS boys win consecutive 8-AAA titles

For all of its success, the defending state champion East Jackson boys’ cross country program had never won back-to-back region titles.
But that changed Thursday.
Running at Lamar Murphy Park, the fifth-ranked Eagles produced three of the top four finishers at the Region 8-AAA meet to win the team title by 16 points over No. 4 Hart County.
“I’m proud of the kids,” coach Tomy Sitton said. “They ran well. You always hope that they will run well when it counts, and (Thursday) they did.”
Shane Shelafoe won his first region individual title, running a strategic time of 17:02.15 to claim his fifth victory in seven events this year.
“I asked him if he would help the No. 2, 3, and 4 runners the first mile,” Sitton said. “Then I told him he could take off after that. We were just trying to do what we could as a team to run better.”
The strategy worked. Sobe Strong followed with a third-place finish (17:36.27) and Marco Flores placed fourth (17:42.82). Andree Menchaca added a seventh-place finish with a time of 17:48.75 as the top four Eagles recorded sub-18:00 times.
“I thought that we would (have four under 18 minutes),” Sitton said. “I didn’t know there would be four in the top seven.”
The East Jackson girls had reason to celebrate, too, taking the runner-up spot behind fourth-ranked Hart County.
Sue Ann Morales, who re-joined the team only recently, won the 8-AAA individual title with a time of 19:39.41 to spark the second-place finish. She finished over a minute ahead of runner-up Bryce Phillips (20:47.76) from Hart County.
For the rest of this story, see the Nov. 1 edition of The Jackson Herald.