MOULTON, Ala. – Several individual runners from Baldwin County finished high in the running with top-5, top-10 and top-20 times in their divisions on the Oakville Indian Mounds XC Course Saturday near Moulton.

In the Boys 5,000 meter event, Bayside Academy’s Ernest Ladd had the fastest Baldwin runners time overall finishing in second-place at 16 minutes, 36.48 seconds in the Boys 3A race just two seconds behind winner Taylor Ray (16:34.68) of American Christian.

Baldwin County High senior Tyler Priest ran a top-20, 17:18.76 to finish 18th in the Class 6A Boys race. Ethan Rowe of Daphne just missed the 20th spot to Benjamin Russell’s Lance Counigan by 0.04 seconds (17:21.40-17:21.44).

The overall individual boys champion was Tommy McDonough of Hoover. The Bucs senior cranked out a 15:39.70 to edge runner-up — Hewitt-Trussville senior —John Ngaruiya’s 15:39.80 by just one tenth (0.10) of a second. It is one of the closest One-Two finishes in the 61-year history of the AHSAA State Championships according to AHSAA.com.

The 2016 AHSAA boys division team titles went to Auburn (7A), Homewood (6A), Scottsboro (5A), LAMP (4A), American Christian (3A) and St. Bernard Prep (1A/2A).

Girls 5,000 meter results

In the Girls 5,000 meters, Lexie Williams of Fairhope clocked a 19:15.56 for the best Baldwin time and finished 17th in Class 7A where the winning time was 17:46.01 by Anna Grace Morgan of Mountain Brook — the overall fastest time in the girls division in all classes Saturday. Grace Jensen ran an 18:18.06 for McGill-Toolen Catholic to take second.

Mandaline Thomas of Daphne was sixth in Class 6A with a time of 19:37.64. Abigail Warner ran a 19:58.81 for Bayside Academy and took fourth place in the Class 3A race.

Other top-20 female-division runners from Baldwin County were Brook Duplantier of Spanish Fort (15th in 20:15.94), Sarah Santa-Cruz of Daphne (18th in 20:34.24) while DHS teammate Nicole Luther turned in a 20:45.86 — just five seconds out of 20th by Homewood senior Caroline Smith’s 20:40.18. Bayside Academy freshman Lauren West ran a 21:09.12 to finish 15th in the 3A race.

The winning time in Class 6A was 18:02.13 by Lainey Phelps of Homewood. The winning time in Class 3A was an 18:53.29 turned in by Allie Nelson of T.R. Miller.

Across the bay, Isabel Valenzuela of St. Paul’s Episcopal won her third straight individual state championship in Class 5A. The freshman led the Saints to the 5A state title with a time of 18:21.33.

The 2016 AHSAA girls division team champions were: Huntsville (7A), Homewood (6A), St. Paul’s Episcopal (5A), Randolph (4A), Pleasant Valley (3A) and Westminster of Oak Mountain (1A/2A) each captured state championships Saturday at the AHSAA 61st State Cross Country Championships.

For more results visit: Xpresstiming.com