2009 NCHSAA CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS SLATED FOR SATURDAY AT TANGLEWOOD PARK

CLEMMONS — The North Carolina High School Athletic Association state championships in cross-country for both men and women will be held at Tanglewood Park in Clemmons on Saturday.

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 1-A men’s championship at 10 am, followed by the 2-A men, 1-A women and 2-A women at thirty-minute intervals. After a break, the program will gear back up at 2 pm with the 3-A men, followed by 4-A men, 3-A women and 4-A women.

Broughton is the two-time defending men’s 4-A champion while East Chapel Hill was the 2008 women’s team titlist, breaking a string of three straight crowns won by its cross-town rival Chapel Hill, which is now in the 3-A ranks.

In the 3-A classification, T.C. Roberson has won the last five women’s state championships while Mooresville has three in a row among the men, but realignment has put them in different classifications for this year.

Charles D. Owen has won four of the last five 2-A men’s titles while Hayesville is the defending men’s 1-A team champ, and both won their respective regionals last week. On the women’s side, Cardinal Gibbons has won the last four 2-A crowns in succession but has moved up to 3-A in the new alignment, while last year Kernersville Bishop McGuinness captured the 1-A.

Visit Winston-Salem and the Forsyth County Tourism Alliance are among those serving as local sponsors for the cross-country championships. This will be the eighth year in a row the championships have been held at Tanglewood.