MOULTON, Ala.- The James Clemens girl’s cross country team began the 2019 season with a bang winning the Pepsi XC Challenge held at Alexander Mini Park in Moulton. The Lady Jets scored 58 points for the victory, posted a win over Huntsville High for the first time in school history and defeated Scottsboro, the defending Class 5A State Champions.

Leading James Clemens was senior Kristin Day who set a meet and course record with a winning time of 19 minutes, 40.36 seconds. Bob Jones junior, Hannah Thuss, was third with a time of 20:28.98 while Claire Deaton, a James Clemens freshman, was ninth at 21:30.90.

“Kristin won by 29 seconds over her nearest competitor against the top teams in our region as this was like a pre-region meet,” said Drew Bell head coach of James Clemens. “Kristin is very confident as her time was the fastest in the state in all classifications.”

Day has been known to practice against boys and has had six scholarship offers from colleges going into the new season. She led the Lady Jets who placed five among the top 20 of the 81 total participants. Team scores included Sparkman eighth (189) and Bob Jones ninth (224).

In boys, Scottsboro was tops with 24 points while James Clemens came in fourth (105), Bob Jones fifth (142) and Sparkman eighth (193). Defending Class 5A Scottsboro was tops with 24 points. James Clemens finished just 18 points behind defending Class 7A state champion Huntsville.

Individual results in boys included senior Osmar Myers of Sparkman who placed second (16:32.63) and Matt Hill, a junior of James Clemens, seventh (17:00.91) among the 159 running in the large school division.

“These athletes have worked very hard during the off-season and it’s a joy to get out of bed and get with them for their workouts,” said Bell. “Our girls’ squad- I feel good where they are so early in the season.”