For the third year in a row, both the boys and girls cross country teams at Long County have advanced to the state championship meet. On Saturday, November 1, the Blue Tide hosted the sectionals meet and both teams placed in the top 12 to advance to the state meet.

Over 30 schools from AAA regions 1-4 made the trip to Ludowici to run the Blue Tide Hills course to run the sectionals meet Saturday morning. Teams needed to finish in the top 12 to advance.

Senior Macey Higgason and sophomore Mackenzie Spurgeon led the Tide girls team. Both runners qualified as individuals by placing in the top 20.

Higgason was the first Tide runner to cross as she finished 17th with a time of 21:43.59. Spurgeon rounded out the top 20 runners with a time of 22:08.77. This is Higgason’s fourth straight season qualifying as an individual for the state meet.

The girls as a whole finished sixth out of 34 teams and were just minutes outside of finishing in the top five.

For the boys, Trevor Kuchar was once again the lead runner, finishing 13th with a time of 17:56.12. He helped lead the boys to an eighth-place finish, less than a minute outside of seventh.

Both teams will travel to Carrollton this weekend to compete in the state championship.