A second place finish at sectionals Thursday in Montgomery has earned the T.R. Miller girls cross country team the right to compete at the state track meet next week in Moulton.
The Lady Tigers placed second behind Bayside Academy—by one point— to earn the right to advance.
T.R. Miller totaled 39 points to Bayside Academy’s 38 points. Montgomery Catholic qualified as the third team as they finished with 65 points. Cottage Hill finished fourth with 82 points.
The top three teams advance to the state competition while the top six individual runners from non-state qualifying team rosters advance.
Karisa Nelson led T.R. Miller as she placed first overall in the race with a time of 18:10.73.
Allie Nelson placed second for T.R. Miller with a time of 19:04.47 and Katie Nelson placed fifth with a time of 20:19.17.
Amber Terry finished with a time of 21:3.10 for 13th place while Lindsay Norton placed 20th with a time of 22:39.22.
Shelby Evans finished with a time of 24:35.24 for 29th place and Morgan Rowell placed 31st with a time of 24:56.68.
Payton Baxter placed 32nd with a time of 25:00.63 while Auburn Schoonover rounded out the Lady Tigers with a 34th place finish with a time of 25:26.36.
After three straight years of finishing as the class 3A state runner-up at the AHSAA state cross country championships, the T.R. Miller Lady Tigers placed third last year at the state meet at the Oakville Indian Mounds Park.
The Lady Tigers scored 103 points to place third behind state champion Montgomery Academy’s 36 points and runner-up Rogers’ 49 points.
The Lady Tigers had earned the class 3A state runner-up trophy three years in a row.
The Lady Tigers fell 18 points short to Rogers 60-42 in 2010. The year before, the Lady Tigers lost by two points to Montgomery Academy and in 2008, came up seven points short also to Montgomery Academy.
In the boys race Thursday at Gateway Park in Montgomery, the Tigers placed fourth out of five teams and failed to qualify for state as a team.
Montgomery Catholic came in first place with 45 points edging out Cottage Hill’s 56 points. Trinity finished in third place with 73 points while T.R. Miller had 88 points..
Bayside finished in fifth place with 94 points.
While the Tigers failed to qualify as a team, they managed to send three runners to the state met next week. Rob Stokes, Christian Carlson and Carter Frezell all qualified for the state meet.
Rob Stokes placed second overall Thursday with a time of 16:16.66.
Christian Carlson placed 11th for T.R. Miller as he finished with a time of 17:30.80.
Frezell took 20th place with a time of 18:43.70 while Travis Carlson was one runner short of making the state meet as he took 30th overall with a time of 19:44.59.
John West placed 31st with a time of 19:45.06 and Ryan Snowden finished in 32nd place with a time of 19:49.00.
Dillon Simmons came in 39th and Stewart Campbell came in 43rd. Simmons ran a time of 20:30.86 while Campbell had a time of 20:58.36.
Noah Morris and Nash Diercks rounded out the T.R. Miller runners with time of 22:34.55 and 23:06.14 for 48th and 49th place respectively.