Alex Grady is hitting his stride, winning his second straight cross country meet at Athens Academy on Thursday.

The Newton senior finished the 5K race in a time of 17 minutes, 15 seconds, and competed at the Berry College Clara Bowl Invitational Saturday.

Newton's boys finished second in the meet with a score of 45, in an average time of 19:20, eight seconds behind the average of the top team. North Oconee won the meet, finishing with 40 points.

Maya Newton and Bikel Stoghill were Newton's only female runners finishing 25th in 28:24 and 27th in 29:18, respectively.

On the boys' side, four Rams' runners finished in the top 15, including Grady. Shemar Ronnie finished sixth in 19:09, Kameron Wallace 10th in 19:49 and Sean McDuffie 12th in 19:56.

Other Rams finishers were Randolph Barrett (26th) in 21:50, Alex Walker (31) 22:41, Richard Nelson (44) 23:58, Azariak Foster (51) 24:40 and Desean Reid (56) 25:08.

Newton hosts the NewRock meet starting at 5 p.m. on Sept. 29.