Druid Hills Wins Region Girls Cross Country Title

By Mark Brock, DeKalb County Schools Athletics:

Defending a title is never easy, but the Druid Hills’ Lady Red Devils
sure made it look easy in blowing past region foe Newton County 21-61 to
win their second consecutive Region 2-AAAAAA cross country title at Druid
Hills Middle School.

Druid Hills placed six runners in the Top 10 finishers led by Paulette
Juieng who ran a 22:02.14 to take second in the individual standings.

Morgan Rossi (22:26.78), Olivia Poole (22:59.26) and Rachel Juieng
(23:09.25) were fourth through sixth, respectively, to put Druid Hills in
the position for the easy victory. Sarah Jane Crawford clinched the
victory with an eighth place finish in a time of 23:31.27 as the fifth
Druid Hills runner to cross the line.

Amy Huang ran a time of 23:40.55 to finish in the Top 10 while giving
Druid Hills six of the first 10 finishers to cross the line.

The win qualifies Druid Hills for the state meet on November 9 at
Carrollton along 11 other DeKalb County teams who qualified the week
before in their respective region meets. The Lady Red Devils also gave
DeKalb three region cross country champions joining Dunwoody (girls) and
Clarkston (boys) in Region 6-AAAAA.

The Red Devils came up short in the defense of their 2012 boys’ region
title as Rockdale County upended Druid Hills 31-46 to take the crown.

Ermais Tewolde was third overall for Druid Hills with a time of 17:21.73
while Max Atkinson (17:46.84) was sixth and Kennarye Blackshear (17:59.73)
was eighth as three runners finished in less than 18 minutes on the day.

Shan Jaffer was 11th in 18:09.20 and Noah Floyd finished in the Top 20 at
19th with a time of 19:06.84.

The Red Devils qualify for the Class AAAAAA State Meet on Saturday,
November 9 at Carrollton to give DeKalb County 13 teams running in their
respective classes and three individuals.