The BCHS girls’ cross country team finished third at the Region 3-A meet at Savannah Country Day Tuesday and therefore will be headed to the state meet. The BCHS boys placed sixth, so their season ended.

The girls were led by Tiffany Howard, who finished second in just over 21 minutes. Three other Lady Redskins - Hailey Stevens, Rachel Anderson and Macy Newman - finished with personal bests.

The Lady Redskins have struggled in past seasons with having enough runners come out to comprise a team. This year, only Stevens, Anderson and Courtney Markles came out, but Coach Cindy Bennett got creative. She enticed the BCHS cheerleading squad and softball player Tiffany Howard to compete in meets to keep in shape. This is the second year for Howard, who won the Region 3-A cross country title last year. This is a first for the cheerleaders, and Bennett is very pleased with the results.

Not only did this give them enough runners to be eligible for team competition, they racked up the wins this season. This includes a first place win at a Jenkins County meet and taking third behind Savannah Christian and Savannah Country Day in a recent region meet.

Courtney Markles has led many of this season’s meets. Other top female performers include Mackenzie Covington, who just returned to the team after recovering from a back injury and cheerleader Macy Newman.

The boys’ team did not fare well this season, which Bennett said is a shame "because they’ve really just warmed up. If the season continued from here, I think they’d do very well."

For example, Redskin Jeffrey Covington had knocked 14 minutes off his time since the season began.

Redskin Andre Anderson consistently placed high in meets and there were many other individual highlights. This includes the vast improvement of Matthew Herb who went from being the number five runner to number one by season’s end.

The Lady Redskins now look the state meet, which takes place Nov. 7 in Carrollton.