2010 NCHSAA CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS SLATEDFOR SATURDAY AT BEESON PARK IN KERNERSVILLE
KERNERSVILLE — The North Carolina High School Athletic Association state championships in cross-country for both men and women will be held at a new venue for the first time on Saturday.
The NCHSAA championships are set for Beeson Park in Kernersville after an eight-year run at Tanglewood Park outside of Winston-Salem.
Top runners from across the state qualified from regional competition last week to the state finals in each classification. The eight cross-country championships include one in each of the NCHSAA’s four classifications for men and women. The first race of the day will be the 4-A men’s championship at 10 am, followed by the 3-A men, 4-A women and 3-A women at thirty-minute intervals. After a break, the program will gear back up at 2 pm with the 2-A men, followed by 1-A men, 2-A women and 1-A women.
Raleigh Sanderson is the defending men’s 4-A champion while Cary Green Hope was the 2009 women’s team titlist and had a great performance in the Mideast Regional, with four runners finishing in the top seven there.
In the 3-A classification, Chapel Hill was a double winner a year ago, sweeping both the men’s and women’s crowns. The Tigers’ championship on the women’s side snapped a string of five consecutive state crowns by T.C. Roberson, who has won 10 of the last 13 state championships in 3-A women’s competition. Sarah Rapp of Raleigh Cardinal Gibbons won the individual title in 2009 and ran to first place in her regional last weekend; she’ll be seeking her third straight crown in two different classifications.
East Lincoln was the top 2-A men’s team last year, halting a string by Black Mountain Charles D. Owen, which had won four of the last five state titles. Misenheimer Gray Stone Day is the defending men’s 1-A team champ. Senior Matus Kriska of Mount Airy won the individual men’s 1-A state crown last year and dominated the Mideast Regional last weekend.
On the women’s side, Carrboro is the defending 2-A champ and Robbinsville captured the 1-A state title in 2009.
The town of Kernersville is among the local sponsors for the cross-country championships. Other local sponsors include Greensboro Orthopaedic, Holiday Inn Express, Kernersville Running Club, OffnRunning Sports, Abbotts Creek Apartments, Chick-Fil-A, Kernersville News, S&R Motor Company and Visit Winston-Salem.
