Frederica Academy cross country runners were as thick as sand gnats on St. Simons Island as the Knights won both the boys’ and girls’ team titles Monday afternoon at Bulloch Academy.

            Head coach Steve Trawick unloaded a slew of runners from the Frederica team bus and they proceeded to dominate the boys’ and girls’ varsity and junior varsity meets.

            The Lady Knights had seven of the top 10 runners in the girls’ varsity race while the Frederica varsity boys had five of the top 10 finishers.

            Haley Watkins won the 3.1-mile girls’ race with a time of 24:39. Bulloch’s Haley Burke was second with a 25:03. After the first lap on the newly-remodeled course, Burke was just two seconds behind Watkins (11:48 and 11:50 respectively) but Watkins kept up the pace and pulled out to a bigger lead on the second lap.

            FA’s Jessica Been took the bronze medal (25:16) in the 27-girl race. Other top BA finishers were Maddie Manack (sixth, 26:04) and Emily Morgan (seventh, 27:14).

            The varsity boys’ race was tight throughout the first lap and just a few seconds separated the leaders at the halfway mark. Edmund Burke’s Kale Wilson turned in a 9:36 while both Bulloch’s John Manack (9:37) and Will Johnson (9:38) were on his heels. But Manack’s left side was in knots.

            “I had a cramp from the beginning,” said the BA senior. “I got worse when I started the second lap.”

            “I could tell he was hurting,” Johnson said of Manack. “Kale was starting to pick it up on the second lap and I knew I had to try and stay with him.”

            Wilson turned in a great second lap to win the 37-runner race with a 19:10 while Frederica’s Clayton Heery took second with a 19:41. Johnson was third with a 19:57 while Manack finished fourth with a 20:59.

            A solid week of rain did not help conditions on the course, especially after Bulloch Academy head coach Beth Burke and assistant coach Deborah Carico revised the trail.

            “Behind the softball field stays wet from the irrigation,” said Burke. “It’s always very slippery plus there wasn’t much room to pass behind the scoreboard. Coach Carico and I decided to make a new trail. After we cut our way through a promising area with slingblades and determined it would make a good running path, we got the cross country parents out there and hacked out a new trail. We had lawn mowers, weed eaters, axes, rakes, machetes and two parents (Chip Smith and Chris Merrill) even brought their tractors to help get the new trail in shape.”

            Still, the new path cut through a boggy, low-lying area. As 276 feet thundered along on the new portion of the trail, it became a swamp. Needless to say, all runners brought a little piece of the new trail back with them as a souvenir.

            Bulloch Academy sixth grader Ashley Burke was the only Gator gold medalist of the day, winning the junior varsity girls’ 1.5-mile race with an 11:52. Frederica runners captured seven of the top 10 spots in the 24-runner race.

            In the junior varsity boys’ race, Frederica had four finishers in the top 10 but so did the Gators. Chase Merrill was third (10:50), Derek Harrison was seventh (13:10), Cody Lanier was eighth (13:20) and Sam Carico was ninth (13:30).

            The elementary cross country teams began the meet. BA’s Dailey Averitt won the 23-runner girls’ meet with a time of 14:39. Lady Gator Abby Morgan was second (15:21) and David Emanuel’s Lauren Williams was third (15:49). It was a Bulloch Academy sweep in the 13-runner boys’ meet. Hunter Perry took first (13:11), Brett Thomas was second (13:21) and Jake Mock was third (13:34).

            Bulloch Academy’s varsity and junior varsity cross-country teams travel to George Walton Academy in Monroe on Sept. 8.