Over the past few years, Douglas County has fielded a solid team of cross country runners with very little reward to show for the effort. Though the Tigers and Lady Tigers have performed well, at the end of the season four teams in what was a very tough region always seemed to edge them out for a spot in the state meet.

Two of those teams included local rivals Alexander and Chapel Hill. With both those schools now in another classification, and a few other schools moved out of the way thanks to the restructuring, both the DC boys and girls teams are now set, and nearly guaranteed a spot in the AAAAAA state meet.

“I think the boys are a much better team than they were last year and the girls are about the same, but because of the smaller region we have a much better shot of making it to state,” said DC boys coach Chet Forsh. “our goal is to try and win it.”

After the restructuring, DC found itself in the 3-AAAAAA region with only six other teams.

The Douglas County boys need only to beat two other teams to qualify, making the road that much more easier. The girls only need to beat one, with only five schools forming the region.

In the girls race, Douglas County has had a solid season and will enter the region tourney this weekend ranked third out of the five teams. Leading the Lady Tigers will be Dana Francisco and Meaghan Shaughnessy. Francisco has the eighth best time individually in the region this season, finishing in 22:14.00. Shaughnessy is 11th overall with a time of 22:27.50.

Rounding out the Lady Tigers’ top seven runners are Meredith Townsend (23:23.00, 17th), Holley Kapella (24:58.93, 21st), Meeredith Denucci (25:00.00, 22nd), Karen Robello (25:24.00, 24th), and Kejia Dzanic (25:33.00, 26th)

The 3-AAAAAA top girls team of 2012 has been Newnan High School, which boasts five top-9 runners in the state. The team is led by Elizabeth Westerfield, the top runner in the region, with a tim eof 20:27. 30.

East Coweta ranks second overall, and is led by Darian Pugh (20:46.00, 2nd). Douglas County has had very little competition head-to-head with both Newnan and East Coweta this season.

Rounding out the top five teams in the girls race in order are Campbell and Westlake.

In the boys competition, Douglas County is currently ranked second of six region teams.

The Tigers have been lead by Danny Shaughnessy, who has the fourth best individual time this season at 17:55.15.

The top seven runners for DC are Zach Crumpler (18:05.55, 6th), Charles Wagner (18:09.54, 7th), Joseph Eads (18:18.80, 8th), Chris Isennock (19:05.57, 19th), Ben Thrash (19:11.51, 22nd), and Jerrell Andrews (19:16.29, 25th).

East Coweta is ranked first in the region by only three points and is led by Austin Freeman, who has the second fastest time this season at 17:42.15.

The third ranked team is Newnan, who is only one point behind Douglas County as far as best time, average finish. Newnan is led by Matthew Miller, who is the top region runner with a time of 17:22.02.

The race this weekend will be a closely decided contest with one of the three aforementioned teams most likely taking the title.

Rounding out the region team rankings in order are Campbell, Langston Hughes, and Westlake.

While winning a region championship is a team effort, both the DC girls and the boys will look for leadership from their top runners. That means the two teams will look to the Shaughnessy siblings as well as Francisco to lead the way.

“They have integrity, and race with a purpose,” said DC girls coach Lyssia Hilko. “They are not afraid to push themselves and lay it all on the line.”

DC’s region tourney will be held at Newnan Utilities’ Carl Miller Park on Saturday at 10:30 a.m. Newnan Utilities is located at 70 Sewell Road, Newnan, Ga. 30263.