CARROLLTON — Wearing a purple and white tie-died T-shirt, Darlington sophomore Ansley McDurmon took the podium Saturday afternoon.

As a cross country runner with a knack for adhering to personal traditions, the petite, light blonde had just created a new one – cracking the top 10 at the state meet.

McDurmon took eighth place in the Class A girls race at the Georgia High School Association State Cross Country Championships, repeating her finish as a freshman.

“My goal was to go out a little bit slower than I usually do and just try and pick people off,” McDurmon said. “I’m not a speed runner, so I knew that the end wasn’t going to be my strength so I just had to keep plugging.”

Coming in at 20 minutes, 40.71 seconds, McDurmon held her spot and was the highest-placing Greater Rome runner during the daylong event held at the Carrollton City Schools Complex, which saw all five classifications hold both boys and girls state races.

Darlington’s girls placed seventh overall in Class A as did the Darlington boys. Both teams missed sixth by slim margins.

In Class AA, Rockmart’s boys finished sixth, ahead of Region 7-AA counterparts Calhoun (11th), Pepperell (14th) and Gordon Central (24th).

Armuchee’s girls edged out Pepperell to take 12th in the Class AA girls race, outscoring them 362-374 to put the Lady Dragons in 13th. Coosa’s girls finished 19th.

Rome’s Sydney Champagne, who qualified for the state meet individually at last week’s Region 7-AAAA meet by placing in the top six, finished 19th in the Class AAAA girls race with a time of 20:52.11.

She met her goal of placing in the top 25 and beating all of her Region 7-AAAA opponents on the state course.

“It was definitely important for me,” Champagne said. “With this being my senior year and my last high school race I wanted to go out with a good finish.”

In the Class A field, the Tigers moved up two spots from last year as sophomore Jesse Baker paced Darlington with a time of 17:15.66 to come in 12th.

“We’re definitely pleased to have improved from ninth but I would say that everybody is unsatisfied,” Darlington coach Alan Parish said. “And that’s OK because everybody is coming back.”

Baker was followed by classmate Cam Collins in 31st with a time of 17:56.24. Next were juniors Marshall Rawson (48th, 18:42.26) and Lucas Jennings (58th, 19:03.53). All of Darlington’s runners came in under 20 minutes.

“It shows that we’re getting better and making improvements,” Baker said. “But we’re all sophomores and juniors and freshmen so we’ll all be back next year and we’re excited about that.”

Lindsey Evans came in after McDurmon for the Lady Tigers with a time of 21:52.34, good for 29th overall. She was followed by Anna Shea (33rd, 22:08.56) and Margaret Hjort (55th, 23:12.04). Darlington will lose only one girl to graduation.

Only 38 points separated third and eighth in the Class A girls race, bringing up the tough competition on display at this year’s state meet.

“The field was much deeper with a lot more good teams,” Parish said. “There were 10 outstanding teams in both the boys’ and the girls’ races.”

Rockmart’s boys were the victim of the increase in competition this year as nearly all of their runners bettered their time from last year’s state championships but went from just missing the podium at fifth place to sixth.

“When you look at it versus last year, we ran much better and we actually scored a lot fewer points,” Rockmart coach Darrell Lee said. “But I’m content that they came down here and ran as hard as they could possibly run. Sometimes, you have to take what you get.”

The Jackets, who won their fifth straight region title last week, will lose top competitors Brock Shanks and Ethan Purser as well as hard-working Justin Long to graduation.

“As individuals, I hate to lose them,” Lee said. “They’ll be hard to replace … but I am confident that somebody will come in and fill in the gaps.”

Shanks was 13th and Purser was 18th in the AA race, coming in at 17:36.06 and 17:49.47, respectively. Teammate Brad Hunt was 21st with a time of 17:51.06.

Rockmart’s next highest runner was Matt Bishop, who placed 44th, finishing in 18:31.69.

Pepperell senior Brittney Mathis led all local runners in the Class AA race as she finished 30th with a time of 21:48.06. Armuchee’s Natalie Shoemaker, who won the Region 7-AA championship last week, was 35th, finishing in 22:04.76.

Teams which earned state championships Saturday were: Class A – Wesleyan (boys), Our Lady of Mercy (girls); Class AA – Westminster (boys), Westminster (girls); Class AAA – Flowery Branch (boys), St. Pius X (girls); Class AAAA – Marist (boys), Marist (girls); Class AAAAA – Brookwood (boys), North Gwinnett (girls).