MOULTON- One of the largest high school cross country meets of the 2021 season was recently held in nearby Moulton as over 600 competitors in the large school division hit the trail at the Oakville Indian Mounds. In all, 130 schools from Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia took part in the annual invitational meet.

James Clemens set new school records in both boys and girls with new marks in average finish times for their top five runners while finishing fourth in both divisions and were the second overall team from Alabama in the team total scoring. In boys, the Jets scored 228 points to winner Hoover, which tallied 120 points, while the Lady Jets posted 200 points to division winner Brentwood, Tenn., which topped the female runners with 49 points.

In the boys 5K, top local performer was senior Ryan Bender of Bob Jones. He completed the trail course at 16-minutes, 29.35 seconds and was No. 32 overall among the 364 participants. Dylan Dryer, 10, of James Clemens was next at No. 33 with a time of 16:29.84. In girls, Sydney Freeman, 12, was tops at No. 33 overall with a time of 19:51.42 to lead James Clemens. There were 282 runners in the girls race.

In team standings, the boys division was won by Hoover, 120, followed by 4. James Clemens, 228, 17. Bob Jones, 518 and 49. Sparkman, 1,359. In girls, Brentwood was No. 1 with 49 points followed by 4. James Clemens, 200, 24. Sparkman, 743 and 27. Bob Jones, 760. James Clemens defeated defending Class 7A state champion Huntsville for the first time.

In boys Jr. High, 30 teams with 395 runners took to the 2K course with Mountain Brook tops with 26 points. Bob Jones No. 6 with 223 points followed by James Clemens at No. 10 with 294 points tallied. Jake Bryan, 8, of Bob Jones was No. 7 overall with a time of 12:06 and was followed by Ethan Brewer, 9, of James Clemens who was No. 18 at 12:18.94.

In girls Jr. High, 327 runners representing 27 schools challenged the course with Mountain Brook posting 44 points, which was good enough for the team victory. Bob Jones was No. 8 with 233 points and James Clemens was No. 11 with 316. Individually, No. 33 was Claire Colo, 8 of James Clemens and finished at 14:55.31 followed by No. 38 Ilene Pout-Blazar, 7, of Bob Jones at 15:18.89 and No. 40 Josie Willis, 8, of Sparkman with a race time of 15:24. 65.