Area cross-country teams had two opportunities to run last week, as the Jackson Public Schools Challenge Series was held at Choctaw Trails on Tuesday and the Clinton Arrow Cross Country Invitational took place on Saturday at Clinton High School.

Brookhaven High School freshman Grayson Childress continued to pile up the podium appearances with his first-place finish in a time of 18:00 minutes on Tuesday.

His teammates — Jacob Britt, Sam Arnold and Jake Thompson — finished in third, fourth, and fifth places, respectively. Jonathan Mathis of West Lincoln finished in sixth place and his teammate, Tiler Castillo, finished eight.

The Brookhaven boys took the team title and West Lincoln finished second. There were 25 teams entered and 283 individual runners at the meet.

In the girls’ meet, Brookhaven took first place by a huge margin over Northwest Rankin. West Lincoln finished fourth.

Brookhaven swept the first three finishers, with Gracie Gray running a meet-best time of 21:30. She was closely followed by Bailey Pounds and Miyah Miller. Carley Craig (sixth), Emmaline Wolfe (seventh) and Abby Roberts (ninth) all finished in the top 10 for the Lady Panthers. Eighth-grader Kara Beth Addison was the top runner for West Lincoln, as she placed 20th with a time of 27:27.

There were 160 runners in the girls’ competition.

On Saturday the Brookhaven girls took their second first-place finish of the week by edging out Pearl at Clinton High School.

Gray took fifth place, followed by Pounds in seventh. Freshman Aubrey Britt of Loyd Star finished in eighth-place, followed by Miller of Brookhaven in ninth. Other top finishers for BHS were Ellie Slay (14th), Carley Craig (15th) and Emmaline Wolfe (19th).

In the boys’ meet on Saturday, Childress led Brookhaven with a fourth-place finish. BHS finished second as a team behind 6A powerhouse Pearl. Arnold (11th), Thompson (14th) and Britt (15th) were top finishers for Brookhaven. Roberto Galindo, Tucker Hoeniges and Leondre Dodds were top finishers for Loyd Star.

Story by Cliff Furr