CARROLLTON—Catholic high school teams dominated state cross country championships in Class AAA and Class AAAA this year. The competitions took place at Carrollton High School Nov. 8.

Blessed Trinity High School

The Blessed Trinity boys won the Class AAA state cross country championship for the Roswell high school on Nov. 8. They were one of three metro Atlanta Catholic schools to win a state championship in cross country.

The Blessed Trinity High School boys team won the Class AAA state championship for the first time since 2003. Of the 213 boys competing in Class AAA, five BT runners finished in the top 20. They were Ben McCoy (seventh place, 17:17.59), Robby Gipson (ninth place, 17:24.84), Leo Pryor (12th place, 17:35.38), Andre Rodriguez (15th place, 17:44.82), and Chase Buran (17th place, 17:48.64).

Greg Johnson, a 2005 BT graduate and the number two runner on the 2003 state championship team, just completed his second season as head coach at the Roswell school.

Johnson credited his four seniors on the team, Adam Nohl, Grayson Huggins, Rodriguez and Buran, for helping to build the program to what it is today.

The team is comprised of “great kids that put in the work, and it was great to see them win. They deserve it,” said Johnson.

The Blessed Trinity girls, coached by Ken Haughey, were state runners-up to Westminster School. Blessed Trinity’s Mary Claire Solomon finished second out of 183 runners, 8.23 seconds behind the first-place winner from Hart County High School.

Marist, Pius, 1-2 in girls cross country

The Lady War Eagles of Marist School won their seventh consecutive Class AAAA state cross country championship after beating archdiocesan high school, St. Pius X, who earned second place.

Marist had the top three finishers in a field of 219 runners, including Morgan Ilse (first place, 18:24.90), Josie Wirtz (second place, 19:18.88) and Caitie Faust (third place, 19:26.62). Katie Glenn was the first St. Pius runner to cross the finish line in 19th place with a time of 21:06.65.

“Our girls were masterful in their execution of both their race plan and season’s training,” said Marist head coach Eric Heintz.

“To finish undefeated for two straight years was a thing of beauty, but to top it off with a record low score of 20 points, and the fastest time of the day (Ilse’s 18:24) while sweeping the top three positions, means this was probably the best Marist performance in history,” he said.

“Congrats to Coach Debbie (Guilbeau) at St. Pius as well for the runner-up finish,” said Heintz, who just finished his ninth season.

Pius, Marist, 1-2 in boys cross country

Reversing the podium positions, the St. Pius X boys earned their fifth straight state cross country title after finishing ahead of Marist School.

Stephen Martinez (third place, 16:26.22), Nik Calia (seventh place, 16:45.66), Ryan Kelly (ninth place, 16:51.51), George Meyer (17th place, 17:14.74) and Daniel Grosch (19th place, 17:21.92) were the top five finishers for St. Pius in a field of 224 runners.

Frank Pittman (second place) and Knox Pittman (16th place) were the top two runners for Marist with times of 16:24.37 and 17:14.26, respectively.

Ryan McClay has served as the St. Pius head coach for six seasons.

“I am very proud of the work the boys put in this year. They spent the past six months focusing all their training to run their best in November, and that’s exactly what they did. The guys worked really hard, and it was a really fun season,” said McClay.