Published: September 12, 2009 11:19 pm      

Lady Cats finish third

Dalton High’s cross country teams followed up on a sweep of Tuesday’s meet at Edwards Park with a strong showing Saturday at the Powerade Invitational at Moccasin Bend in Chattanooga.

The Lady Catamounts finished third and the Cats seventh in 14-team fields.

“We ran well today,” Dalton coach Karen Galyon said. “The course was 99 percent grass and was very nice. But it’s harder to run than it looks because you run across the fields, loop up a hill and then go back the other direction.”

Bearden won the boys team title, while Baylor’s girls were first. Southeast also competed in the meet, with the Raiders 13th and Lady Raiders 14th.

Dalton’s girls were led by Bekha Houston, who was eighth and finished the 5-kilometer course in 21:14. Carina Nieto (ninth, 21:14), Meral Henton (14th, 21:53), Paxton Plunkett (29th, 23:30), Melanie Lipscomb (60th, 25:52), Channel Salazar (79th, 27:36) and Zaira Gonzalez (83rd, 28:20) also competed.

The boys were led by Christian Pineda (23rd, 18:13), Fernando Morales (26th, 18:25), Jonathon Hernandez (36th, 18:37), Julio Gonzalez (44th, 18:59), Preston Pound (45th, 19:00), Daniel Beltran (47th, 19:02) and Grant Snyder (48th, 19:03).

Competing for Southeast’s boys were Josue Limas (27th, 18:25), Jose Montelongo (75th, 20:06), Ryan Thomason (79th, 20:19), Logan Ledford (86th, 21:01) and Jon Nunez (96th, 22:04).

Competing for the Lady Raiders were Summer Faith (52nd, 25:13), Kristabel Rangel (59th, 25:15), Anahy Rangel (64th, 26:00, Melba Benitez (71st, 26:30) and Joanna Gomez (81st, 28:00).



Varsity softball



n Dalton finished fourth in the gold division of the 14-team Cherokee tournament, finishing second in its pool on Friday but losing both its games in the championship bracket on Saturday.

The Lady Cats picked up a forfeit when Gilmer didn’t show, then lost to Sequoyah 3-2 on Friday. They lost 10-2 to Gordon Lee and 6-1 to Eagle’s Landing Christian Academy on Saturday.

Among the weekend’s biggest highlights for the Lady Cats (6-8) were back-to-back home runs by Shelby Whitfield and Pakie Planzer against Gordon Lee. Planzer also went 2-for-3 with an RBI against Eagle’s Landing and had a double and an RBI against Sequoyah.

n In the Adairsville tournament, Southeast tied Dunwoody 4-4 Friday night in a game that was called after exceeding the 1 hour, 10 minute tournament time limit, then went 3-1 Saturday with wins over Oklahoma’s Owasso (7-6 in nine innings), Northwest Whitfield (4-3 in eight innings) and Trion (8-1), while losing to Cedartown (5-2).

The Lady Raiders, who are now 9-6, were led by pitcher Kasey Headrick, who picked up all three of her team’s wins and was named to the all-tournament team.

The Lady Bruins struggled, losing to Owasso (4-3) on Friday, then Trion (5-4), Owasso (4-0), Cedartown (4-2) and Southeast on Saturday. Their lone bright spot was Emily Boyd’s perfect game against Chattooga. She struck out 10 for Northwest, which is now 9-10.

Varsity volleyball

• Northwest went 3-2 at the Georgia Challenge, played at the All-Tournament Players Park in Marietta, beating Etowah (25-16, 15-25, 28-26) Mount Zion (25-7, 25-7) and Riverwood (26-24, 25-18), but losing to Creekview (25-11, 21-25, 25-23) and Sprayberry (25-22, 25-20).

The Lady Bruins (12-6) were led by Christy Robinson’s 59 kills, 36 digs, four aces and a block. Kelsey Kirk added 29 kills, 39 digs, six blocks and four aces, Morgan Ridley added 22 kills, three blocks and 14 digs and Haley Dobson had 95 assists, seven aces and 20 digs.

• Dalton went 2-3 at the Darlington Tournament, beating Sonoraville (25-20, 25-21) and Rome (25-5, 25-9) while losing to North Cobb Christian (25-23, 25-18), Prince Christian Academy (25-18, 25-16) and Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe (25-20, 25-18).

The Lady Cats, who fell to 9-10, were led by Mary Faith Erwin’s 21 kills, Lindsey Smedley’s 16 kills, Joanna Rosales’ 47 assists, Katie Curtin’s 11 kills and Julie Parham’s 17 aces.

JV softball

• North Murray (6-2) swept a doubleheader against Monroe, wining the first game 11-2 in five innings and the second 5-1. Hannah Hensley (complete game, five strikeouts, three hits one walk) won the first game and Cara Tucker (complete game, nine strikeouts, four hits, three walks) the second. Hensley was 6-for-7 at the plate on the day.