This past Saturday, the Charles Henderson Trojans cross country team headed up US Highway 29 to Auburn where they competed in the Class 4A Region 2 Sectional cross country meet.

In all, the Trojans had four runners qualify for the sectional meet, three on the boys’ team and one on the girls’ team.

In the boys’ race, junior Taylor Montgomery led the way for the Trojans finishing with a time of 20:18, which was good enough to finish 38th overall. Ryley Williamson posted a time of 21:25 and finished 44th. Stephen Cooper finished with a respectable time of 22:09, good for a 50th place finish.

Head coach Steve Haug said he thought his team did a good job, considering the conditions surrounding the race. “The boys did pretty good,” Haug said. “The biggest thing about the sectional meet is that they have to compete against the UMS-Wrights of the world. All the boys were dealing with some type of ankle injury, but they still ran about their normal times. Ryley actually ran a little faster.”

Lakin Turner was the sole runner for the girls and also the sole Trojan to qualify for the state meet. Turner finished with a time of 23:54 and finished 20th overall in 4A.

Haug said he was proud of Turner’s performance. “Lakin did really well,” Huag said. “I told her to get out in front at the beginning of the race, and she held her own out front for a while. I think she really pushed herself.”

At the sectional meet, the top three finishing teams qualify for state. In addition to the three teams, the top six individual finishers not on the qualified teams also qualify for state.

Neither Charles Henderson’s boys’ or girls’ teams had enough runners to qualify as a team. Turner qualified for the state meet on the basis of finishing as the sixth individual qualifier.

It was the second consecutive year that Turner, a sophomore, qualified for the state meet. “She did pretty darn good to make it to state,” Haug said. “She’s done it her sophomore and freshman years now, and she still has two years to go. If she keeps getting better and better, I can see her placing in the top 15 and earning a medal.”

Haug said he and Turner have been working on her speed heading in to Saturday’s race. “We’ve been working at the track to improve her speed,” Haug said. “She has the potential to do pretty well on Saturday.”

Despite having only four runners at the sectional meet, Haug said he viewed the season as a success. “We didn’t have many kids out this year, but the kids we did have worked hard,” Haug said. “It was disappointing that we didn’t have enough people to make a full team. We’re going to work on getting more kids in for next year.”

The state cross country meet will be held at the Oakville Indian Mound Park near Moulton this Saturday.

Turner will be the lone Trojan runner. The Class 4A girls run at 8:50 a.m.