Cardinal Gibbons, Marvin Ridge repeat; Asheville sweeps individual titles
Women’s Results | Men’s Results
In the 4A Championships, both the Marvin Ridge Mavericks men and the Cardinal Gibbons Crusaders women repeated as NCHSAA Champions.
In the women’s race, the Crusaders earned their 15th cross country championship thanks to four finishes in the top 12 places. Hannah Rae Shaffer led the way for Cardinal Gibbons as she finished in sixth place with a time of 18:14.12. Addy Mitchell and Maggie Whitham came in ninth and tenth, respectively, and freshman Kaitlyn Estep came in 12th.
The Crusaders tallied 62 points on the day, and Cuthbertson, which finished second, tallied 136. They were led by a fifth-place finish from freshman Colby McCollum. Marvin Ridge took third place, and Myers Park and Broughton rounded out the top five.
Asheville junior Sofi Alexander took home the individual title as she completed the course in 18:01.23, just 1.51 seconds in front of Ragsdale freshman Elle Dawson in second place. Hoggard sophomore Amelia Medlin finished in third place, and Addie Oversmith from Broughton took fourth by one second over Cuthbertson’s McCollum.
In the men’s race, Marvin Ridge’s four top-20 finishes netted them 68 points, comfortably in front of Broughton in second place with 96. Hoggard took third place, and Holly Springs and Riverside completed in the top five. Senior runners paced the field as each of the top sixth finishers was a 12th grader, including Marvin Ridge’s David Rivlin in fourth.
Teammate David Firestone came in 10th, and Michael Rivlin came in 13th.
Michael Haskin, a senior from Asheville, took the top individual spot as he ran a 15:21.71, about 1.5 seconds ahead of Philip Blum from Riverside. Connor Tyrrell, also from Riverside, finished in third.
The win is the second men’s Cross County title for Marvin Ridge.
The NCHSAA is committed to recognizing outstanding sportsmanship in each of our State Championship events. The Association has partnered with the North Carolina Farm Bureau to award a pair of Sportsmanship Awards at each championship event, recognizing players who have demonstrated the ideals of outstanding character and sportsmanship throughout the 2024 season. The winners of the 4A Cross Country NC Farm Bureau Sportsmanship Awards were Ava Walters from Cuthbertson, Maggie Whitham from Cardinal Gibbons, David Firestone from Marvin Ridge, and Cam Kuss from Broughton.