ATHENS — Ethan Thomas ran a 22:19 Thursday at the region meet at Athens Academy, leading all Commerce runners in their final event of the season.
Thomas finished 36th in a field of 48 as the Tigers placed last in 8-A with 204 points behind Athens Christian (32 points), Prince Avenue (39), Athens Academy (69), Hebron Christian (88), Towns County (140) and Lakeview Academy (191).
“We all ran pretty well,” coach Mark Hale said. “I enjoyed coaching these runners. They were a good group.”
Commerce has just one participant in the girls’ race, Hannah Duckett, who finished 25th out of 29 with a time of 25:43.
Following Thomas in the boys’ race were Zach Scannell (40th, 24:23), Zan Peek (41st, 25:02), Juan Toribio (43rd, 25:11), Cody Nation (44th, 26:00) and Johnathan Leffew (46th, 27:19).
The Tigers’ top five ran the 3.1-mile course in an average time of 24:35.
Athens Christian edged out Prince Avenue for the boys’ region title, despite running a slower average time (18:32) than the Wolverines (18:23). However, the Eagles were buoyed by a course-record 16:26 from region individual champion Colin Bishoff.
Bishoff finished 43 seconds ahead of second-place Ian Rogan of Prince Avenue (17:09).
Athens Christian also won the girls’ team region title, beating out Athens Academy by just two points, 37-39.
