SAVANANH — South Effingham senior Susan Salisbury finished sixth in the Arts in the Park 5K at Daffin Park Saturday.

Salisbury finished the 3.1-mile course in 23 minutes, 23 seconds, helping lead the Lady Mustang cross country team to a ninth place finish.

“It feels good to get the first race out of the way,” she said. “I wanted to see how I would do in the first race and now it sets it up for the rest of the races.”

Salisbury, who is the defending Region 3-AAA champion, admitted to being a little jittery when starting the race.

“I was was nervous when I first saw all the runners,” she said. “But once we started to race, I began to feel good and I wasn’t hurting at all.”

More than 35 high schools from Georgia and South Carolina competed in the race.

Bradley Boyd paced the South Effingham boys team, finishing 23rd at 19:30.

“I ran pretty good, but I feel like I could have done better,” he said. “But I feel that way after every race.”

Boyd said he ran too fast to start off the race and began to fall off his pace in the middle of the race.

“I have to keep my pace the entire race,” he said. “I don’t want to burn out and the key is to start well.”

SEHS results:
Boys — Bradley Boyd, 23, 19:30; Isaiah Broomfield, 24, 19:33; Chris Braswell, 44, 20:12; Adam Schaffner, 76, 21:10; Brandon Hancock, 101, 22:22. Girls — Susan Salisbury, 6, 23:23; Alyssa Mastrianni, 20, 24:42; Charity Passailgue, 35, 26:14; Shelli Clay, 74, 28:43; Kimberly Tabikian, 78, 28:53.