Maynard Jackson Freshman Grace Danser Tops The Girls Field Of The APS XC City Championsip
On Thursday, Atlanta Public Schools and the Atlanta Track Club hosted the annual APS Cross Country City Championship, Georgia’s second longest running cross country meet. The meet featured a boys and girls 5K for the high school competitors and for the second year in a row a middle school championship that included a few new programs this season.
The Boys 5K would be the first event of the day and the North Atlanta Warriors would jump out with a host of runners leading the way majority of the run and eventually taking the top four spots and six of the top eight with Sumner Kirsch taking first in a time of 17:38.77 and Teddy Meredith finishing in second at 17:40.21. “We came out here knowing we were going to run strong as a team, so that’s exactly what we did,” Kirsch said after the race. The Warriors would win the team championship with 17 points.
The Girls 5K, was an exciting one that would end with an surprising win as Maynard Jackson Jaguars freshman Grace Danser, would take first in a time of 21:22.90, helping the Jaguars to a second place finish with 43 points, behind Midtown at 34 points. Midtown actual would have a pack of four runners, including Cate Barton (2nd – 21:26.26) and Sierra Pape (3rd – 21:33.92) leading the race a mile in, but as runners approached the two mile mark, Barton and Pape had created some separation, however Danser was right on their heels and would go on to make her move during the final mile of the run. “I felt good,” Danser said after her winning adding that her only thoughts down the stretch were to “just sprint to the finish line and win”.
