For the first time in five years, Walton is an all-sports champion in the state of Georgia.
The Raiders took home first place in the Georgia Athletic Directors Association Director’s Cup standings in Class 7A, the largest classification in the state.
Walton’s victory over Lambert in the Georgia High School Association’s Class 7A boys lacrosse championship game last weekend proved to be the clincher for the Director’s Cup.
Walton tallied 1,225 points for the season, and Lambert had 1,180 points. North Gwinnett was third with 1,154 points.
Lassiter ranked No. 13 in Class 7A with 798 points, and Wheeler was 40th with 361 points. Class 7A has 48 schools.
(You can read through the standings here.)
The Pope athletics program is guaranteed a third-place finish in Class 6A. The Greyhounds have 1,021 points, trailing only Cambridge (1,119) and Cobb rival Harrison (1,115).
Pope is meeting Heritage of Conyers in the 6A baseball finals, but would not move past Harrison with a title.
UPDATE: The Greyhounds fell in Game 3 on Thursday and are state baseball runner-up.
Also in 6A, Sprayberry was 47th, with 182 points, out of 57 schools.
In Class 5A, Kell finished 16th in the Director’s Cup, with 702 points. The top finishers were Starr’s Mill, Buford and McIntosh in a classification with 56 schools.
The Walker School came in 12th in Class A with 705 points. Mt. Bethel Christian Academy, which fields a handful of varsity sports, was 84th in a classification with 99 schools.
Four state title teams
The teams from East Cobb that took home state championships in the 2018-19 school year are the Pope and Walton volleyball teams, the Pope boys cross country team and the Walton boys lacrosse team.
For Walton, the Director’s Cup is the school’s third since 2013. The Raiders haven’t been out of the top five since, and last year were fourth.
Pope won the Director’s Cup in 2014 and 2017 and was fifth last year.
The Walton girls topped 7A, edging Lambert 650 to 641 points. The Lassiter girls were 16th and the Wheeler girls were 40th.
In 6A, the Pope girls were fifth, and Sprayberry was 42nd. The Kell girls were 14th in Class 5A, while the Walker girls were 6th in Class 1A.
In the boys’ standings, Walton was second to Cobb rival Hillgrove, 584 to 575, in Class 7A, with Lassiter in 13th place and Wheeler in 39th.
The Pope boys could have won the 6A standings with a state baseball title. The Greyhounds trailed Harrison 507 to 502 points. Ironically, it was the Harrison girls’ softball team that defeated Pope in the state championship series last fall.
The Sprayberry boys finished 42nd in Class 6A, and the Kell boys were 14th in Class 5A. The Walker boys were 32nd in Class A.
Mt. Bethel Christian, which began a high school on Post Oak Tritt Road in 2014, also is new to the GHSA. For a time this season the boys basketball team was ranked No. 1 in Class A, and qualified for the state tournament.
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