The Jones County High cross-country team will host the region 4B-AAAA meet at Gray Station Middle School, Saturday, 10 a.m., in the culmination of its 2007 season.

The highlight of the team, according to coach Mike Denaro, has been the performance of senior Brittley Blount, who has turned in four top-five performances in eight meets so far this season.

Most recently, Blount turned in the fourth-best girls’ time at a meet at Upson-Lee High in Thomaston a week ago. In the team’s previous meet, at Bleckley County High, Blount was the fastest girl representing the AAAA classification.

Blount is one of only two seniors on the nine-member girls’ varsity squad, which is rounded out by four ninth-graders and three sophomores.

The team’s consistent second-best runner this season has been freshman Caroline Perry.

At each meet, a team’s top five finishers are counted in determining the team standings.

“Our other three spots have been alternating between the other six girls,” Denaro said. “I think they’ve got a pretty good chance of placing at region.”

At Saturday’s meet, the top four teams, as well as the top six individuals, in both the girls’ and boys’ divisions, qualify for the AAAA state meet next weekend in Carrollton.

“I think the girls have got a pretty good chance of placing at region,” Denaro said.

Thus far this season, the team’s best finishes have come in a fourth-place effort out of nine teams at the Jones County Open early in the season and a fourth-place effort in the AAAA classification at Bleckley two weeks ago.

For the boys’ team, Denaro has seen an impressive trio of runners interchange at the top of the standings at nearly every meet.

Two of the team’s four seniors, Bobby Poole and Corey Song, and sophomore Jesse Denaro have been the pacesetters for the squad.

“Those three have been switching places at the top for us at nearly every meet,” Denaro said. “They’re all flirting right at 19 minutes and trying to get to that 18-minute mark. They’re really battling it out, and that’s been making for some good races.”

Denaro is looking for two of his remaining nine boys to come up with times in the 19-minute range Saturday. Then, if his top three runners can break into the 18-minute range, the team has a good shot at advancing to the meet in Carrollton.

“We’ve seen typical progression with these runners,” Denaro said. “A lot of them are getting their personal bests at every meet. They’re getting faster and faster, and, as far as going into the region meet, we should be able to hit our peak on Saturday.”

The region meet will take place on land that is adjacent to Gray Station Middle School, which the team has been able to use courtesy of a local donor. The team lost last year’s course, which was on the old Woodland Hills Golf Course off of Highway 49, to a development project.

Aside from coaching both the varsity girls’ and boys’ squads, Denaro has guided both middle school teams, which consist of eight total runners.

Because the teams are so low in numbers, neither squad has qualified in the team standings at any meet this season, but Denaro hopes that will change in the future.

“I would like to see us get an official middle school program with coaches,” Denaro said. “That would also help boost these high school programs.”

The middle school program had been up and running before a two-year hiatus forced Denaro into this year’s rebuilding effort.

Thus far, seventh-grader Skylar McQueen has proven the program’s best athlete, finishing in the top 15 at several meets and finishing 70th in a huge 26-team field at this past weekend’s middle school state championship meet in Cochran.

“She has shown a lot of potential, and hopefully she’ll stick with it,” Denaro said.

Denaro said that, along with the heat, which kept the team from practicing in the afternoon until the end of August, accommodating all of the different levels of runners has been one of his biggest challenges this season.

“You have to be much more diverse in your training because you’ve got middle schoolers who may be able to run a half of a mile at the beginning of the season alongside veterans who’ve been out here for four or five years and can run 10 miles,” the coach said.

“You don’t want to leave anybody out, but the larger the group, the more difficult that becomes.”

With one coach in charge of four teams and a combined 29 runners, Denaro has been very grateful for the work of student manager Coral Peters.

“Me being the only coach, her duties of keeping records, keeping attendance, and just keeping things straight have been a big help,” Denaro said.