CROSS COUNTRY: Eagles teams take eighth and ninth on short course

Running just a three-mile course, instead of the customary 3.1 miles, the East Jackson girls’ cross country team took eighth while the boys finished ninth Saturday at Winder-Barrow.
“I feel the course was a little short for all the kids,” East Jackson coach Tomy Sitton said. “I feel we ran better as a team, but we have our work cut out for us to qualify for state in late October.”
Shane Shelafoe nearly claimed his second win of the year, running a 15:07.26 in the boys’ race to finish second, less than two seconds behind winner Miguel Lopez of Gainesville.
“Shane ran a good race and got out-kicked the last part by the winner from Gainesville,” Sitton said. “I see him as being one of the top three to four (runners) in AAA.”
Sitton added that his top runner will face a big challenge at the Oct. 4 Mountain Invitational at Unicoi State Park.
Marco Flores contributed a sub-17:00 time for the boys’ squad, running a 16:21 to finish 13th. Rounding out East Jackson’s top five were Sobe Strong (38th, 17:15.87), Gabe Merk (79th, 19:05.88) and Noah Watts (80th, 19:07.99). The boys’ team was without Andree Menchaca.
On the girls’ side, Lissett Miranda led the Eagles with a time of 21:08.33, placing 15th. Others scoring were Sheena Lim (34th, 22:20.37), Tanea Davis (47th, 22:59.17), Emily Parker (52nd, 23:20.74) and Anna Fox (54th, 23:22.57).