By KEVIN ECKLEBERRY

Daily News

Hundreds of runners, including dozens representing the local schools, participated in the Callaway Invitational cross-country race on Saturday morning.

While the high-school runners competed on a 3.1-mile course at Callaway High, the middle-school runners took on a two-mile course.

The event was hosted by Callaway High, and cross-country coach Shonna Yawn was thrilled with how things turned out.

“To have this kind of turnout, you envision it, but you don’t really see it for real until you get out here and see just what it’s going to be about,” Yawn said Saturday morning. “I think everybody enjoyed it. It’s gone smoothly. We haven’t had any injuries, and the weather was great. It’s just starting to warm up when we’re almost done. This has been a really great experience. We had almost 300 runners, and 12 teams, so it’s something that we look forward to hosting another one next year.”

Yawn appreciates everyone that helped out with the event, including a number of coaches and administrators at the school who came out on Saturday morning to lend a hand.

“I can not think the parents enough, and the administrators that came out and supported this,” Yawn said. “The support from the Callaway family is above and beyond. It’s not just one sport. I’m very thankful. There’s a lot of work that goes into it.”

In the girls’ varsity race, LaGrange High took first place, with Lauren Farris leading the way with a second-place finish.

In the boys’ varsity race, LaGrange was a close second to Smiths Station, with Nathan Fritchley leading the Grangers with a fourth-place finish.

There was also a junior-varsity race, as well as a middle-school race that completed the day’s festivities.

In the varsity girls’ race, five of the first 14 runners to cross the finish line were from LaGrange.

Farris was second overall with a time of 24 minutes, eight seconds, and Zamya Rhaney (24:37) and Zanay Rhaney (24:52) were fourth and fifth, respectively.

Next for LaGrange was Ivorie Smith (25:44) in ninth place, Anna Doerr (25:47) was 11th, Sophie Nix (28:07) placed 14th, and Tatum Fritchley (29:00) was 16th.

Callaway’s top finishers was Ashley Bowden (25:45) was 10th, an Troup’s Allie Foster (28:46) placed 15th.

In the varsity’ boys’ race, LaGrange had four top-10 finishers, with Fritchley (20:17) leading the way with his fourth-place result.

Fritchley said it was a challenging course that took the runners through the wooded property at Callaway High.

“It was difficult. It’s different,” Fritchley said. “It’s actual cross country. It’s a lot of trails, uphill and downhill. It was interesting.”

Next for LaGrange was Matthew Callaway (20:30) in seventh, Alex Martin (20:37) was eighth, and Terry Franklin (20:53) placed 10th.

LaGrange’s next two runners were Bo Beall (22:20) and Aaron Fritchley (22:34), who were 24th and 25th, respectively.

Three of LaGrange’s top runners were unable to compete on Saturday, but the team still nearly raced away with the title.

LaGrange coach Chase Wilson was glad to get his runners back in action after what he felt was a disappointing effort at a race in Carrollton the previous week.

“We ran at Carrollton last week and we did not run well at all,” Wilson said. “We’d originally only planned on bringing (junior-varsity) runners, but after we ran that meet, we came here. We knew this was going to be another tough course, so we said let’s come run this one. We thought they needed experience on a hard course.”

Callaway’s top runner on Saturday was Calik Kemp (23:36), who was 32nd, and Clay Well (23:37) led Troup with a 33rd-place finish.

Here are results from Saturday’s race, including top-10 finishers overall, and all of the runners from the local schools

HIGH-SCHOOL GIRLS

TOP-10

1 – Kiley Murphy (Brookstone), 22:31

2 – Lauren Farris (LaGrange), 24:08

3 – Railey Prins (Smiths Station), 24:11

4 – Zamya Rhaney (LaGrange), 24:35

5 – Zanay Rhaney (LaGrange), 24:52

6 – Aubren Hallam (Smiths Station), 25:00

7 – Amaya De La Cruz (Smiths Station), 25:31

8 – Emmarie Zeh (Smiths Station), 25:36

9 – Ivorie Smith (LaGrange), 25:36

10 – Ashley Bowden (Callaway), 25:45

LOCAL FINISHERS

CALLAWAY

10 – Ashley Bowden, 25:45

30 – Lydea Mayes, 32:28

35 – Vivian Streiff, 33:50

42 – Sara Belton, 38:06

LAGRANGE

2 – Lauren Farris, 24:08

4 – Zamya Rhaney, 24:37

5 – Zanay Rhaney, 24:52

9 – Ivorie Smith 25:44

11 – Anna Doerr, 25:47

14 – Sophie Nix, 28:07

16 – Tatum Fritchley, 29:00

23 – Delfina Martinez, 30:00

TROUP

15 – Allie Foster, 28:46

39 – Emily Beasley, 36:56

40 – Anna Barintine, 37:15

41 – Whitney Wallace, 37:17

HIGH-SCHOOL BOYS

TOP-10

1 – Andrew McGinnis (Calvary Christian), 19:04

2 – Savian Taylor (Smiths Station), 19:17

3 – Koby Lord (Heritage), 19:21

4 – Nathan Fritchley (LaGrange), 20:17

5 – Gage Dubberly (Smiths Station), 20:23

6 – Kaiden Baxley (Smiths Station), 20:25

7 – Matthew Callaway (LaGrange), 20:30

8 – Alex Martin (LaGrange), 20:37

9 – Jaxon Prins (Smiths Station), 20:46

10 – Terry Franklin (LaGrange), 20:53

CALLAWAY

32 – Kalik Cemp, 23:36

34 – Desmon Nunley, 23:55

48 – Avery Brooks, 26:00

49 – Lane Thompson, 26:33

50 – Brett Belton, 26:34

59 – Jacob Elbin, 28:45

62 – Neil Ellison, 30:24

63 – Maurice Delany, 30:30

64 – Colton Alsobrook, 30:50

65 – Darrell Parham, 31:28

LAGRANGE

4 – Nathan Fritchley, 20:17

7 – Matthew Callaway, 20:30

8 – Alex Martin, 20:37

10 – Terry Franklin, 20:53

24 – Bo Beall, 22:20

25 – Aaron Fritchley, 22:34

29 – Jaylen Brown, 23:08

37 – Andy Patton, 24:25

52 – Alec Morrissette, 26:49

60 – Manuel Ceja, 28:45

TROUP

33 – Clay Webb, 23:37

38 – Jacob Bearden, 24:28

43 – Wesley Bartlett, 24:47

51 – Zach Taylor, 26:47

58 – Tyler Cardwell, 27:46

69 – Brandon Jordan, 35:10