April 29, 2015
Dunwoody Crier
North Springs girls hit best in nation
North Springs’ girls track team won the Region 7AAAAA championship. Pictured from back: junior Micaiah Ransby, senior Dory
Perkins, freshmen Kennedi Weston-Shields and Maya Dunn. Front (lr) juniors Molly Jackson and Tyra Williams, sophomore Kennedy Crawford and freshman Mikayla Dun. Jackson, Perkins, Ransby and
Williams are the fastest 4x400 relay team in the nation and ran the
fastest time in Georgia track history.
North Springs’ girls track
pulled out all the stops yesterday, scoring 94 points to win
the Region 7 AAAAA Championship. The Spartans placed first in
six events and the highlight was
unquestionably the 4 x 400
meter relay. With a time of
3:41.50, Spartans’ Molly Jackson, Dory Perkins, Micaiah
Ransby and Tyra Williams
posted the fastest time in Georgia track history and are now
ranked No. 1 in the United
States. Micaiah Ransby also placed
first in the 400 and 200, Molly
Jackson placed first in the 800
and Jayda Drake Howard won
the 300 hurdles. The Spartans
are coached by PE department
chair and long-time track coach
Patty Carroll and former
Olympic gold medalist Antonio
McKay. McKay, a Georgia
Tech graduate, is a world
record holder and member of
the Track and Field Hall of
Fame. The Spartans will next compete at sectionals at Starrs Mill
on May 2 and for the state
championship in Albany on
May 7-9.
The Spartan girl’s track team
under Coach Carroll last
brought home the gold at State
in 2005.
Page 9
St. Pius lax is perfect,
baseball best in school history
By Joseph Cavalli
For The Crier
The St. Pius lacrosse team
clinched its first region championship in seven years with a
13-9 win over Decatur High
School. After falling behind 4-0 in
the opening minutes of the
match the Golden Lions rallied
to come from behind and pick
up their fourth straight win and
11th in 12 games.
“We got off to a slow start,”
said senior midfielder Jared
Natsch. “But the way we responded and came back to win
shows the character of this
team.”
After Decatur jumped out to
an early lead the game was
evenly matched until the
fourth quarter when St. Pius
began to pull away.
The Golden Lions finished
the season with a perfect 10-0
record in region play to edge
out Benedictine Military
School for the region title.
With the win the Golden
Lions clinched a No. 1 seed in
the state playoffs with only one
game remaining in the regular
season against Woodward
Academy.
The Golden Lions will most
likely take on McIntosh High
School in the first round, a
school that won the head to
head matchup when the two
met earlier in the season.
The baseball team also
wrapped up its most successful
season in school history with a
1-0 win against Redan High
School.
The win pushed the Golden
Lions to a school record 24-2
on the season and extended
their win streak to eighth games
going into the playoffs. With a
region record of 16-2 they too
should go into the playoffs with
a No. 1 seed. The team has
looked great on offense and defense all year and will need to
keep playing both at a high
level as the playoffs approach. King to Auburn gridiron
Playoffs beginning for HIES squads
By Dunn Neugebauer
For the Crier
The Holy Innocents’ girls’
lacrosse team, still in the hunt
for a playoff spot, did itself
right last Friday night at home,
topping Pinecrest 14-7. Coach
Julie LaFramboise’s Lady
Bears will face Wesleyan
Wednesday on the road as the
pieces of the puzzle fall into
place.
Barring unforeseen circumstances, HIES has a great
chance of gaining the No. 3
seed or at worst, advance in at
the No. 4 spot.
In the Pinecrest outing,
Coach LaFramboise felt good
about what she saw. “It was a
great team win on a fun Family
Night,” she said. “So many
people stepped up and contributed (today).”
Plenty scored in the effort,
Patterson Williams led with
four goals while Sally Raney
and Ashley Patton had two
each. Others with goals included Keller Anderson, Grace
Brock, Sara Brumbeloe, Sarah
Mason, Claire Simmel and Isabella Franke.
On the defensive side, goalkeeper Anna Crumpler had a
great performance while in
front of her Sarah Schmidt and
Kylie Thurber both came up
big.
The playoffs begin next
week.
Postseason also begins for
five other HIES teams late this
week and early next. Coach
D.C. Aiken’s baseball squad –
after securing the No. 4 seed in
Region 6AA – will travel to
Heard County Friday for a best
two-of-three series.
The Bears ended regular season splitting their last two
games – topping B.E.S.T.
Academy 13-2 Thursday before
falling to Lovett 7-6 Friday in
HIES, page 16
Griffin King of Marist School committed to Auburn University to play
football. He will be joining his brother, Gray King who is a receiver at
Auburn. Pictured above, top row: Marist Athletic Director Tommy
Marshall, Marist Coach Alan Chadwick, King’s sister, Savannah King,
and Marist Coach Dan Perez. Bottom row: Griffin King (c) with his
parents, Dr. Debra Gray King and Dan King.
Brandon Hall girls tennis wins state, boys finish runner up
The Brandon Hall School
girls’ and boys’ tennis teams
entered the AA GISA State
Team Tournament with high
expectations as both teams
have gone unbeaten since the
second week of March.
After defeating FPCA and
Grace Christian in the first
two rounds the Lady Panthers
were matched up with No. 1seeded Brentwood in the
GISA Championship match.
On paper, it looked like an
even matchup and the Lady
Panthers were fired up as they
knew a state championship
was within the grasp.
After the first sets completed it was clear many of the
matches would require a second set comeback. Almost
like the sense of urgency
clicked at the same moment,
Olivia Bryan and Annika
Feuer picked their game up a
notch and rose to the championship moment. Both forced a
third set tiebreak and both
came through with the dramatic tiebreak victory.
This left the match at 2-2
with Alexis Ruff all that was
standing between the girls
tennis team and a state championship. With Ruff up 6-5 in
the second and all of the spectators holding their breath,
Alexis Ruff put herself forever in Brandon Hall lore by
finishing the match and
clinching the 3-2 victory. The
wild celebration ensued as the
Lady Panthers clinched their
first ever team state championship.
“I was very proud of the
way the girls competed and
executed under the bright
lights and added pressure of a
state championship match,”
Coach Melinda Payne said.
The Lady Panthers will return five of their seven starters
from last year’s team in hope
of repeating next year.
On the boys’ side of the
bracket, it was clear that
Brandon Hall and Monsignor
Donovan were on a crash
course to meet in the state finals.
As expected, Brandon Hall
and Monsignor Donovan met
in the GISA State Championship match as both teams
rolled through the regular season.
Brandon Hall’s second
doubles line of Richard Pennington and Summy Liu easily won while Monsignor
Donovan handily won the No.
1 singles spot. The other three
matches were all up in the air.
With Brandon Hall’s Jon Corbett about to close out his
match, Cort Cox dropped a
tight match at line 3.
This set up the stage for a
third set tiebreak at one doubles. In a tiebreaker with
many momentum swings,
BRANDON HALL, page 16