COLUMBUS — The tradition of Gallia Academy girls cross country was alive and well on Saturday.

Gallia Academy competed in its second straight State Tournament, and finished 13th as a team in Division II, during the 29th annual event held Saturday at Scioto Downs.

Gallia Academy’s top runner was Lauren Adkins, who finished the course in 19:10, with a pace of 6:11. Adkins placed 13th overall out of the 143 runners that took part in the race.

The efforts of the only senior, Carol Fahmy who crossed the finish line in 20:33 with an average of 6:37, helped push the team up in the final rankings. Fahmy’s mark was good enough for 76th place in the state.

“She has been a tremendous leader and it is going to be a big loss to lose her, not only as a runner, but as a person, and especially as a leader for out team,” said coach Penny Roush of her lone senior.

Just five seconds behind Fahmy was Lee Ann Townsend, whose pace was 6:39 and put her in 79th place. On down the line was Andrea Wiseman, who ended up in 127th place in a time of 22:11 averaging 7:09, Genna Baker finished in 22:28 a pace of 7:15, freshman Alli Saunders crossed in 23:04 pacing herself at 7:26 and rounding up the Angles line up was Aarika Stanley, the only other upperclassman, who completed the race in 24:41 averaging 7:58.

The Blue Angels are just starting to spread their wings, as only two upper classmen competed in the top seven qualifiers for the state tourney.

“We have had great improvement, the first big race of the year was at Warren and Marietta beat us,” stated Roush. “We are a very young team, at league we beat them quite handily, so that shows the improvement. It’s not that they got worse, it’s that we improved — a lot.”

This year’s team won three invitationals and was runner-up at two. The girls were Southeastern Ohio Athletic League Champions, Southeast District Champions, Regional Champions, and qualified for the state tournament.

The Blue Angels have had a girls’ team for 23 of those years, all of which have posted winning records.