World record holder Cory McGee, as expected, won the girls high school race in the Mississippi Premier Mile Festival Saturday night at USM's Marshall Bell Complex.

But the Pass Christian eighth-grader heard the footsteps of Presbyterian Christian High School sophomore Logan Waites all the way to the finish line.

McGee, who ran a 4 minute, 49-second mile in winning the national high school mile race in New York earlier this year, finished Saturday's run in 5:13, four seconds ahead of Hattiesburg's Waites.

"I couldn't see her, but I heard the crowd cheering her on," said McGee, the fastest 13-year-old female in the world who, in typical teenage fashion, said she would turn 14 on May 29.

"I wasn't going for any certain time, just to place. You had competition from the best high school runners in the state."

A "rabbit" ran two of the four laps in the girls' mile, sprinting to the lead, and McGee stayed just behind her for a half mile. Then she was on her own, and at one point was perhaps 35 yards ahead of her nearest competitor.

That's when Waites, who won the mile and two-mile runs in the academy state meet, began her kick.

"This was fun," she said about the race, which she entered knowing that staying with McGee would not be easy. "I was very surprised with my energy.

"About halfway through, I thought maybe I should try to (make a run at McGee)."

And she did. And although four seconds is a fairly long distance in a mile run, the second-place finish made Waites smile.

"This was my last race of this track season," she said. "I had no goal coming into this race."

Krissy Ford finished third in 5:25.

In the boys high school mile race, Daniel Simpkins won in 4:29, followed by Matthew Cameron in 4:31 and Cameron Vincent in 4:33.

Hunter Murray of Ridgeland won the male open division in 4:50, followed by Josh Hooker in 4:53 and Kyle Davis in 4:55.

Murray took the lead with about a lap to go.