Raiders, Lady Panthers Win Opening Races at Arabia Mountain

By Mark Brock

The DeKalb County cross country season hit the two-thirds mark on Tuesday with two varsity races at Arabia Mountain High School as teams begin to gear up for the county and region championships in a few weeks.

The Redan Raiders captured their first victory of the season in the boys’ opening race by placing four runners in the Top 10 finishers for a 33-64 win over Southwest DeKalb. Stephenson was third with 74 points followed by Arabia Mountain in fourth with 79, Towers in fifth with 157 and Martin Luther King Jr. in sixth with 163.


Southwest DeKalb senior Kameron Scott grabbed his third individual title of the season and second at Arabia Mountain with a time of 18:46.06. Redan took the next two spots behind Scott as junior Keith Terry (19:08.35) and Cedric Roberts (19:40.17) came in third and fourth, respectively.

Senior Ian Grandison was fifth for the Raiders in 21:11.65 and sophomore Earnest McNease III was seventh in 21:15.39.

Third place Stephenson had three runners in the Top 10 including senior Chaz Berry (20:01.61) in fourth, junior Liban Mohamoud (21:14.37) in sixth and junior Jarret Williams (22:06.44) in tenth.

Arabia Mountain seniors Carnell Mattox (21:45.54) and Alema Favors (22:01.14) were eighth and ninth, respectively to round out the Top 10.

The Southwest DeKalb Lady Panthers placed four runners in the Top 10 including individual winner Ashley Middlebrooks (24:09.34), a sophomore, as they won 43-58 over Columbia. Redan was third with 62 points followed by Stephenson with 129 and Martin Luther King Jr. with 165.

Junior Kayla Willis, the individual winner at Arabia Mountain in Week 2, was second for Southwest in a time of 24:16.04. Sophomore Deja Alexander (28:10.79) was ninth and junior Davion Wingate (29:27.27) was tenth for the Lady Panthers. 

Columbia had four runners in the Top 10 led by sophomore Delissa Grant (27:08.86) in fifth followed in order by junior DaNesha Cross (27:32.27),
sophomore Aseneth Williams (27:59.22) and junior Jennecia King (27:59.76).

Redan sophomore Tanzanie Brown was third in 24:50.26 and Arabia Mountain sophomore Matoaka Wilson was fourth in 25:35.07.

The Clarkston Angoras won their fourth consecutive race while sweeping the Top 6 places in the second boys’ race of the day to put up a perfect score of 15 to easily outdistance second place Cross Keys which finished with 62 points. Stone Mountain was third with 84 points and Tucker fourth with 131.

Senior Hussen Sadik set the best time at the Arabia course for 2013 with a time of 18:00.32 as he knocked off 57 seconds from his time from two weeks in a second place finish. Senior Muhozi Aimable also knocked off almost a minute of his time of two weeks prior as he went 52 seconds better with a clocking of 18:00.75.

Senior Leiso Tumbo was third in 18:15.39 followed in order by junior Gidey Sahlu (18:48.72), freshman Bineyam Tumbo (19:13.81) and sophomore Abbas Abbkr (19:15.97).

Cross Keys had three runners in the Top 10 as senior Chao Lin was seventh in 19:26.28 and fellow senior Christian Padilla was eighth in 19:50.25. Senior Christian Newkirk was 10th in 19:53.83. Stone Mountain sophomore Matthew Felder was ninth with a time of 19:50.25 to round out the Top 10.

Senior twin sisters Naima and Nuba Jackson finished one-two, respectively, in the girls’ second race of the day to give Tucker its second team victory of the season. Naima won her second consecutive individual title at Arabia Mountain in a time of 23:25.95 while Nuba, who’s won twice at Druid Hills this season, was second in 23:26.41.

Sophomore Kiera Washington made it a clean sweep of the top three spots for Tucker with a time of 24:23.66 to help solidify Tucker’s 23-50 win over Cedar Grove.

Tucker also claimed the final three spots in the Top 10 as Aminata Harris (28:51.38) led the next trio of Tucker runners. Junior Dorlene Hanson was ninth in 29:54.12 while senior Sharik Jones was 10th in 30:42.96.

Stone Mountain senior Sidea McCord was fourth in 27:03.26 while Miller Grove senior Tyrika Moore was fifth in 27:53.01.

Cedar Grove used a pair of Top 10 finishes to take second place as sophomore Tayler Smith (27:55.18) was sixth and senior Shayla Toomer (28:21.69) was seventh.

The next cross country action takes place on Tuesday, Sept. 24 at Druid Hills Middle School beginning at 5:15 p.m. and 6 p.m. for the varsity races and a 5:45 start for the junior varsity. All 19 DeKalb County high schools are scheduled to compete.