The elevation and course made it tough for the Liberty County High School cross-country team at the GHSA AAAA state meet Saturday at Carrollton.
“I warned them about this course,” coach Lisa Knight said after the race, adding that she ran it 10 years ago when she was in high school.
The Panther girls placed 30th out of 32 teams, while the boys placed 31st.
Carrollton, about 50 miles west of Atlanta, sits just over 1,100 above sea level — Hinesville’s elevation is about 75 feet — and Carrollton City High School’s course is hilly.
“About the only place we could train for that is McIntosh Mountain, and it’s not even safe for cars,” Knight said, referring to the railroad overpass on Highway 84 east of Hinesville.
The average time of the boys’ team winner, St. Pius X from Atlanta, was 16 minutes, 56.01 seconds. Liberty’s average was 22:03.53. The average time for the AAAA girls’ champion, Marist, also out of Atlanta, was 19:31.50. Liberty’s girls averaged 27:05.66.
Here are the times for Liberty’s runners:

Boys
Cameron Ochoa, 20:06.37
Anthony Vasquez, 21:34.75
Cleveland Dargan, 22:37.02
Miquail Evans, 22:38.99
Will Scaggs, 23:20.52
Mikkel Schleemann, 23:29.84
Desmon Hines, 23:34.18

Girls
Kiara Bell, 25:03.12
Cortney Welch, 25:15.39
Adrianna Valdez, 27:21.63
Jennifer Garcia, 28:22.29
Jatyra Moore, 29:25.84