Dan Granthan/Courtesy Photo
Every cross-country runner trains long and hard in a quest of winning an individual state championship. Every coach hopes his strategies and workouts will give his runners an opportunity to achieve this goal. On Monday, at the State 2A Championships at NSU, Alisa Lander, Eric Greene, and Coach Dan Grantham saw this dream become a reality with a sweep of the ladies and men’s titles.
Alisa Lander defended her state title from 2014, running a
Courtesy Photo
13:38 over the three-mile course. Lander grabbed the lead early and lengthened it during the race. Second place finisher, Alicia Stamey of Episcopal, finished 18 seconds back at 18:56. When asked how it felt to cross the finish line for the second straight year in first place, Lander used simply one word, “wonderful.”
Eric Greene, state runner-up in 2014, used a different strategy to run away with the 2015 race running a 16:13. Greene laid back until the two-mile mark where he took over the lead and cruised to a 25-second victory over two Episcopal runners. Greene, a senior, said finishing first across the line was like an out of body experience and also that he plans to continue running in college.
For the second straight year, Cody Robinson finished all-state by finishing ninth in the men’s race with a time of 16:46. Robinson, a junior, said his goal is to win next year’s title.
Freshmen Tyler Davis and Logan Bailey finished 38th and 66th running times of 18:19 and 19:30. Their seventh grade teammates Austin Nunn and Jeremiah Brown finished 145th and 181st with times of 22:46 and 25:40. The Lakeside men’s team scored a total of 249 points which placed them seventh out of the 27 AA teams vying for the championship. The largest field ever consisting of 195 runners finished the race.
The Lakeside ladies made up of Lander and six junior high performers placed eighth out of 20 AA teams scoring 244 points. Kerrigan Zachary finished 54th at 22:35. Egypt anderson ran a 23:54 for 72nd place. Alaina Stiles finished 73rd at 23:56. Placing 75th was Angelina Futch at 24:01. Kaylee Davis took 79th at 24:17. Essence Anderson finished 109th at 26:44. A total of 160 ladies finished the race.
In summarizing his feelings after the meet Coach Dan Grantham said he was very blessed to have worked with such a good group of kids throughout the year.