The Dawson County High School varsity girls cross country team captured the Region 7-AAA championship on Oct. 28 at Banks County High School.

Head Coach Charles Beusse's Lady Tigers are headed to Carrollton on Nov. 8 for the state meet.

Dawson County easily outdistanced runners-up Fannin County.

The Lady Tigers scored 37 team points, compared to the Lady Rebels who amassed 63 points.

The Banks County girls came out hard in the first mile with a large pack of their runners leading the field.

Fannin County was also in the mix early on while Dawson County sat about 10 seconds back from the leaders in good positioning.

In mile two, the runners hit the first tough section of hills. Several of the Banks County girls who had started in the lead pack began to show signs of exhaustion on the hills and, sensing they were fading, the Lady Tigers, as well as Fannin County, overtook several Banks County girls and began to try to form some separation from them.

The Lady Tigers executed well and surged hard on the hills in the final mile of the race in an effort to gas some of the Fannin and Banks girls who still sat in the top 10.

Their efforts were successful and by the finish, Beusse's girls had moved five people into the top 10 overall and all seven of the Lady Tigers runners were in the top 15 overall.

"Going into the meet, we knew we had a shot to be contenders at the title, but we also knew it would be tough as Banks County had beaten us the last time we meet at Unicoi," Beusse said.

The Lady Tigers placed four runners in the top 10. Dawson County's Marley Hamby was the top Lady Tiger with a third place finish and a time of 23:03.

Teammate Bailey Cotter, who just returned from injury, crossed the finish line in seventh place and a time of 24:22.

Cassidy Lecours and Ansley Costley came in eighth and ninth respectively with times of 24:27 and 24:46.

Rounding out the varsity finishers were: Faith Sinclair (24:49) in 10th place, Melanie Rimawi and Taylor Grindstaff.

"I couldn't be more proud of the effort from these girls. In early June, all of them set a goal for themselves of winning a region championship. Since then, they have shown up every day and worked toward that goal, pushing themselves and their teammates to be better," Beusse said.

Winning the individual title was Makayla Hewell from Banks County with a time of 21:21.