Saturday's Report: Bleckley County, GMC/GHSA state XC, Henley stays hot; Braves, UGA, Tech, Falcons; World Series, NFL, NBA,
News and notes of interest to Central Georgia, compiled from staff reports, email reports, the web, and social media.
In Coverage: High school football
Coming Saturday: Peach State college football previews
📰S📰C📰O📰R📰E📰B📰O📰A📰R📰D📰
High School
College
⚽ ⚽ ⚽Soccer ⚽ ⚽ ⚽
🏐🏐🏐Volleyball🏐🏐🏐
The Citadel 3, Mercer 1 (23-25, 28-26, 25-15, 25-18)
Pro
SPHL
Knoxville 3, Macon 2
NBA
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Around/about Central Georgia
A good day of state cross country for Bleckley County, GMC
Central Georgia’s premiere distance running program showed up again at the GHSA state cross country meet Friday in Carrollton.
Bleckley County’s Ella Gibbs won the Class A Division I girls state title, while Luke Churchwell won the boys title. Gibbs led the way for the Royals to win the team title as well.
Class A’s Division II meet also took place Friday, with GMC’s boys tying for first but named second, and the girls taking sixth.
The Royals’ girls topped Paideia by 46 points for their first state championship since 2019, which was the final of four straight Class AA titles.
Jasper County was 15th, East Laurens 20th, and Lamar County 25th.
Gibbs won by 10 seconds over Armuchee’s Marissa Kimple. Teammate Tristen Crosby was sixth, Jasper County’s Colbie Ramsey 10th, with Bleckley County’s Ellen Arnold 1th and Johna Bowen 17th.
Churchwell had one teammate in the top 25, 10th-place Claeb Darsey, the only only other Central Georgian in the top 25.
His win drew attention for a photo finish, Churchwell’s time of 16:35.98 nipping the 16:36.03 of Taylor Wade from Whitefield Academy.
Bleckley County finished fifth with 121 points. Six points separate first and second with Armuchee and Whitefield Academy. Jasper County took 15th, East Laurens 18th, Lamar County 20th, Crawford Coubty 26th, and Dublin 29th.
GMC’s Joe Meier finished second in the Division II boys by 12 seconds. The Bulldogs’ Julian Council was eighth, Brian Sherwood 14th, Owen McCabe 20th, and Colby Avery 22nd.
GMC and Atkinson tied with 66 points. GMC was the only Central Georgia team competing.
The girls finished sixth, also the only area team competing.
Class 7A also competed Friday. The rest of the classifications run on Saturday, starting at 8 a.m.
Henley matches sterling first round, takes lead
Consistency abandoned Russell Henley for a period last season, and hasn’t appeared in the early stages of the season.
He sure has it so far at the World Wide Technology Championship in Mexico.
Henley repeated his first-round 63 in the second round on Friday to take a three-shot lead over Sam Ryder and Will Gordon.
He even matched how he shot 63: pars and birdies. He birdied five of the same holes on Friday as Thursday.
It’s his best two-round total since 165 in last year’s Sony Open, in January, when he had the lead much of the tournament and finished second.
He tees off Saturday at 2 p.m. The action will be on the Golf Channel from 3-6 p.m., and from 2-5 on Sunday.
Around/About Georgia/Southeast
Strider, Acuna among Players Choice Award winners
Muschamp’s contract details released
Column: A Dooley-like run vs. Florida coming?
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Smith still impacting UGA defenders
WBKB: New faces, offense them for Tech, Fortner
College Football/Southeast
Kiffin gives Sanders a boost for Auburn job
College Football
Tussles in stadium tunnels a throwback in older venues
MLB/Baseball
Astros look to close it out in Game 6
World Series viewing turning into a participation sport
Series outdraws Thursday Night Football NFL game
Judge voted POTY by MLB players
Football/NFL/USFL
The Divorce: ‘This was never Tom’s idea’
Auto Racing
Wall-hugging Chastain, hot Bell eye first title
NBA/WNBA/Basketball
Column: This is Brooklyn’s plan? Fuggedabout it
Durant: Nets could have kept quiet about Irvin, tumult
Wizards’ Jewish forward Avdija weighs in on Irvin situation
Doncic hits 30 for eighth straight game
Warriors fall to 0-6 on the road
Around the nation/world