Cross country: East Jackson runners warm-up for region with fourth-place ...

The region meet is Oct. 27.

“I feel pretty good,” coach Tomy Sitton said. “The kids are improving and working hard. Hopefully, they’ll put it together at Oglethorpe County at region.”

East Jackson’s boys ran to their fourth-place showing behind three top-10 finishes from runners who all broke the 18-minute mark. Cale Pirtle placed fifth with a time of 17:31, Stuart Robinett was seventh with a 17:36 and Vladik Staples finished eighth with a 17:41.
Rounding out the scoring were Noah Hulett (32nd, 18:47) and Cory McClung (42nd, 19:13).

The only Region 8-AA boys’ team finishing higher than East Jackson was North Oconee, which won the event.

Meanwhile, East Jackson’s girls finished behind region rivals Jackson County and Jefferson, in the nine-team event. Kristen Whitlock paced East Jackson with an eighth-place finish, running a 21:35, followed by Haleigh Smith (16th, 22:22), Robin Adair (21st, 23:07), Courtney McDowell (23rd, 23:19) and McKenzie Parr (42nd, 25:23).

East Jackson has one regular season meet remaining — the Bob Roller Invitational — which it will host this Thursday at 4:30 p.m. Sitton said he hopes that provides his runners with another good tune-up before region.

“Yeah, I think so,” Sitton said. “We’ve know that we’ve got our work cut out for us in this region.”