Tallassee’s off-season running paid off this weekend.
Tallassee, participating in The MontgoMery TrailblAzer race on Saturday at Gateway Park, had an overall successful day against some very talented cross country teams.
The boys team for Tallassee featured some runners participating in their first race but still managed to place 10th overall in a field of 14 teams, while Mallory Glass was the only girl to run for Tallassee and set a new personal record.
“We have a lot of new faces out there so this was their first time they’ve ever raced,” head coach Danny Worley said. “A couple of them were just coming out here to see what they could do, and they honestly exceeded our expectations.”
The girls event started the race on Saturday morning at 8 a.m., and Glass set her new personal record just 24 minutes later.
Beating her time by over a minute, Glass ran her 5k run in a time of 23:40.95 and placed 30th in a field of 105 runners. Due to being the only varsity girl runner on Tallassee, she did not earn a score, but she placed higher than any other girl from surrounding schools such as Wetumpka, Stanhope Elmore and Holtville.
“This is Mallory’s second year running so we expected her to start the year with a personal record simply due to her being a year older,” Worley said. “She did exactly that and beat her best time by a minute. She’s going to do really well this year and she’s exactly where we think she should be.”
Tallassee’s boys team had exactly five racers, which was what a team needed to place in the standings. The team’s total score is accumulated by the top five racers from each school.
Tallassee finished with a score of 280 and cracked the Top 10 by beating PCA by one point.
The Tigers were led by Avery Brantley, who finished 48th overall with a time of 19:33.13.
Due to some players not recording points because five of their teammates had already finished before them, Brantley recorded a score of 30 points.
Not far behind him was John Robert Baxley with a time of 21:23.75. He scored 53 points.
Brady Adams crossed the finish line half a minute later with a time of 21:55.25, while Wyatt Wehler (22:01.09) and Nathan Mason (23:00.58) wrapped up the race for Tallassee.
“We did really well,” Worley said. “We knew we had two runners that could do well in Avery and John Robert, and they both met our expectations. We had a time we thought our newcomers could reach, and they were all right around that time so that’s a win for them. They did a good job placing 10th in a stacked field. We’re really pleased.”